


All the Days of our Lives, Phase 1

by ElrondsScribe



Series: All the Days of Our Lives: The Avengers [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Avengers - Freeform, Captain America - Freeform, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Ian Boothby - Freeform, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), avengers watch the movies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-03 21:00:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 41,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5306582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElrondsScribe/pseuds/ElrondsScribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An Avengers-watch-their-own-movies fanfiction. I know it's been done before, but I wanted to try it with a more expansive audience. In addition to all the Avengers (both retired and active) you'll find Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Laura Barton, Betty Ross, Helen Cho, Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, and even Ian Boothby.</p><p>Post Captain America: Civil War. AU, obviously. All ships in the tags. Please do enjoy! Warning: there will be a bit of language.</p><p> First up: Captain America: The First Avenger</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Picking Up The Pieces

**Author's Note:**

> This will include phases 1 and 2 only of the Avengers movie arc excluding Guardians of the Galaxy.
> 
> I’m going in chronological order, so they’ll be watching Captain America: The First Avenger first. My hope is to go all the way up to Ant-Man!
> 
> There aren't going to be any opening or end credits - just the main movie content and the post-(and mid-)credit scenes.

**Okay! This new version is post Civil War, obviously. This means that the tone of the series will be somewhat dour in the beginning and will lighten up with time.**

**Pairings: Steve/Sharon (mentions of Steve/Peggy); Tony/Pepper; Thor/Jane; Bucky/Natasha; Bruce/Betty; Vision/Wanda; Ian/Darcy; mentions of past Peter/Gwen and current Peter/Mary Jane.**

**For all Steve fans: Don't expect the level of Tony bashing and Steve worship you probably want.**

**For all Tony fans: Don't expect the level of Steve bashing and Tony worship you probably want.**

**My personal experience in writing fanfiction for storylines where neither 'side' is blameless is that to 'take sides' as an author and write from a perspective of extreme favoritism does my writing no favors. In other words, I ultimately side with neither Tony nor Steve because to do either robs both Steve and Tony (and the Avengers who rallied behind them) of the depth and nuance they deserve and that Marvel has given them, both as men and as heroes.**

**Now don't mistake me - there will be many passages where I go quite heavy on Tony, and many passages where I go quite heavy on Steve. As always,** **context determines everything** **.**

**So if you took sides during Civil War, expect to have your feelings thoroughly trampled on during parts of the narrative and** _ **don't**_ **say I didn't warn you!**

**With this understanding - enjoy!**

* * *

It was the day after the Fourth of July that the package arrived.

Tony Stark had decided that Independence Day was his least favorite holiday. Not because of its historical significance in particular - or maybe so, at this point, who knew? - but because he knew for a fact that Steve Rogers' birthday was July 4.

It used to be one of the favorite jokes thrown around for the four birthdays/Independence Days Steve had had with the other Avengers (had it only been four years?). Snatches of _The Star Spangled Man with a Plan_ and _Yankee Doodle Boy_ would probably be heard wherever the unlucky Steve showed his face. Nicknames like Captain Spangly-Ass and Miss America (the latter complete with a silver tiara Natasha loved chasing Steve around with) would trail him.

Now the memories rattled insistently in the back of Tony's head. Everything related to Steve Rogers was colored with resentment and rage and raw hurt and _guilt_ worst of all. Because, much as some might not believe it, Tony's not an idiot. He _knows_ Barnes was nothing but a brainwashed machine. He knows Mom wasn't even a target ( _and yeah, Dad, you were an asshole and so was I, but I didn't actually hate you and it doesn't help that I had to watch you die_ ). He knows Zemo was manipulating him, manipulating everybody.

And knowing all this didn't change a damn thing.

( _Hey Wanda - I think I get it now. How it felt, looking at me, knowing I killed your family._ )

And now were no Avengers anymore - Rogers ( _and Barnes, damn you_ ), Wilson, Barton, Maximoff, Romanoff ( _shoulda seen that one coming_ ), and the bug guy Lang were all on the run. Parker was back at home where he belonged ( _it is summer, he's not in school anymore_ ) and T'Challa had a freaking _country_ to run. Rhodey was . . . well, out of commission. Thor and Banner had been out of the picture since last May.

The only official active, registered Avengers (according to the United Nations) were The Vision and Tony Stark. Vision had withdrawn almost entirely after the Leipzig fiasco and was only just starting to emerge, and Tony was in no way prepared to open the Pandora's box of calling himself an Avenger.

Which was why, when he initially opened the package with the eleven blank DVD cases and the note, he considered burning the thing just to be rid of everything it dredged up.

_Tony,_

_The videos in this box need to be watched (in some safe or neutral place, of course) by_ _all_ _of the Avengers, past and present, official and unofficial. In case it's unclear, we'll list them out:_

_Yourself (we mean it, Tony!)_

_The Vision_

_James 'Rhodey' Rhodes_

_Natasha Romanoff_

_Steve Rogers_

_Sam Wilson_

_Scott Lang_

_Clint Barton_

_Wanda Maximoff_

_Peter Parker_

_King T'Challa of Wakanda_

_Ask His Majesty to bring James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes out of cryostasis, with the understanding that watching these films will gradually clear the HYDRA programming from his brain._

_Find a way to call Thor up, and track down Dr. Banner with all the resources at your disposal._

_We also_ _strongly_ _recommend that you call up Ms. Sharon Carter, Ex-Director Nicholas Fury and/or Maria Hill, Dr. Elizabeth Ross, Dr. Jane Foster, Ms. Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, Mrs. Laura Barton, Mrs. Jim Paxton. We leave it to the discretion of the latter two and Agent Barton to decide if Cooper, Lila, and Cassie are old enough to view this material (we personally think the girls are a bit young, but Cooper at least is only two years younger than Peter)._

_And in case you're thinking of disregarding the instructions above, we've overridden your security system and locked you in the compound until you've arranged for everybody to meet. We've also charmed the DVD cases so you can't start watching them without all the Avengers present. But we made sure there's plenty of food and drink to enjoy while you're on your movie marathon._

_Watch in this order:_

_Captain America: The First Avenger_

_Iron Man_

_Iron Man 2_

_The Incredible Hulk_

_Thor_

_The Avengers_

_Iron Man 3_

_Thor: The Dark World_

_Captain America: The Winter Soldier_

_Avengers: Age of Ultron_

_Ant-Man_

_Enjoy (as best you can)!_

_P.S. Tell Jane she's more than welcome to bring Darcy Lewis and Ian Boothby along for the ride!_

_P.P.S. Don't you think it's time Aunt May had a little hint?_

Tony muttered an oath under his breath ("Language!" barked Steve's voice in his ear, and _so that was only one time, I'm never forgetting it_ ) and threw the box across his desk. He crumpled the note and tossed it into the wastebasket. _Because there's no way I'm calling all my worst nightmares for a movie marathon._

But when he got up to check on Rhodey, the office door wouldn't open. Tony frowned, and yanked on the handle. "FRIDAY," he said irritably. "Let me outta here."

"I can't do that, boss," said the Irish brogue. "I've been locked out of the security system, I can't access the doors."

Tony swore again, and stomped back to his desk. He stared at the little trash bin, and wondered vaguely if suicide was the fastest way out of this mess. Eventually he pulled out the crumpled note and smoothed it out to read it over again. _So I have to face Barnes, Rogers, Maximoff, and Pepper all at once. Wonderful. And how am I supposed to find Banner or call Thor anyway?_

His eye fell on the flip phone, which for some reason he hadn't destroyed or gotten rid of, or even made into a robot.

Well, he wasn't clear on how some of this was going to come together. But the first step in the process was obvious. He gritted his teeth, and picked up the phone.

* * *

Steve Rogers jumped when his left pocket began vibrating, initially startled. He had stuffed his hand into his pocket before he knew what he was doing - only by the time he was actually pulling out the phone did his (slightly sleep-deprived) brain catch up. It was not his actual cell, but the flip phone that was ringing.

_It's Tony._

He gulped, staring at the phone. He'd kept it in his pocket ever since he'd sent its companion off to Tony, like a faint hope of forgiveness and reconciliation. He hadn't actually expected it to ring at all, and certainly not so soon. _Am I really ready for this?_

But there was no time to think about it - he flipped the phone open and put it to his ear. "Tony?" he managed.

"Rogers," Tony's voice was completely toneless. "How's retirement treating you?"

Steve blinked. "Um . . ."

"Settling down doesn't really seem to be your thing, so I figure I'm probably catching you in the middle of the night or something."

Steve knew Tony well enough to realize that he was putting off what he had really called to say, and trying to deflect with sarcasm. He also knew perfectly well that Tony wouldn't even be speaking to him unless there was something _really_ important coming. _And you earned that from him fair and square._ "It's - actually half past two in the morning here, but I was up anyway," said his mouth while his brain tried to tell him that _you basically just told Tony Stark where you are, congratulations on giving all the other Avengers away, not to mention betraying T'Challa's hospitality._

"Where -" began Tony, and abruptly he seemed to lose patience. "You know what, screw it," he muttered, and his voice became cold and hard. "Listen, Rogers," he growled. "We gotta talk."

"Okay, we're talking." Steve regretted the words once they were out of his mouth, but decided against apologizing.

What Tony said next made his jaw drop. "We gotta do _what?!_ "

* * *

"Certainly I can make arrangements," said His Majesty. "And you are sure this is not a trick?"

"As sure as I can be about anything involving Tony," said Steve.

King T'Challa leveled his piercing gaze at the American. "I had the impression you trusted Stark no further than you could throw him."

Steve met the King's look with surprising conviction. "I think that's what this insanity is somehow supposed to fix."

* * *

"Don't worry about me, Tony," said Rhodey. "I'll be fine, if you aren't bothered by being seen with an old guy in a chair."

* * *

"Movies?" asked Sam Wilson for the umpteenth time. "You're serious?"

Steve threw up his hands. "I don't know what to tell ya," he said. "Tony sounded serious - and _he_ called _me_ , remember?"

* * *

The knock on the door came when Laura was in the middle of drying the dishes. "Lila," she called. "Can you see who that is?"

Lila knew better than to whine "why can't Cooper" principally because Cooper was currently watching baby Nate, so she left the dishcloth in a little heap on the table she'd been wiping and trotted off dutifully to the front door.

And then her mother heard her squeal "Auntie Nat!"

She nearly dropped the plate she was holding, anxiety clawing at her as she came around to the front room. _What's Natasha doing_ here _?_

"Hey, _babochka_ ," Natasha's smile was as warm as it always was in greeting her niece and nephews, and she swept Lila up in her arms. "Oof!" she pretended to wince. "You keep getting bigger and bigger - soon I won't be able to pick you up anymore!"

"Auntie Nat?" Cooper appeared at the foot of the stairs, his arms full of squirming and protesting Nate. He'd been sullen and moody since Clint had left to "bust Wanda out of the compound" and subsequently been captured and arrested.

"Hey, Paratrooper," Nat put Lila down and reached for the baby. "How would you like to go on a trip?"

"A trip?" Laura raised her eyebrows.

Nat cuddled her traitorous namesake to quiet him. "It's a long story," she said to Laura. "Let's go in the kitchen, shall we?"

* * *

Peter Parker was taking apart a laptop when one of his web-shooters suddenly began vibrating. He jumped, knocking his knee against the leg of his desk.

"Everything okay?" called Aunt May from the kitchen downstairs.

"Yeah - yeah, it's cool," Peter shouted back, cringing at the frantic note in his own voice as he grabbed at the vibrating wristband.

"Okay," said Aunt May dubiously, but she mercifully let it pass.

Peter inspected the wristband, leaving the shooter control and the holograph button aside for the moment. He found another very small button just next to the cartridge holder, and pressed it.

"Parker?" said the voice of Tony Stark, and Peter jumped again (this time managing not to hit anything). He sidled to the door of his room and pushed it shut.

"Mr. Stark?" he whispered experimentally to his wristband

"Hey, uh, school's out, right?" came the famous voice from his wrist.

Peter couldn't resist. "Mr. Stark, it's, like, July."

"Right, yeah," Peter thought Mr. Stark sounded distracted. "Listen, do you or your aunt have plans to go anywhere this summer?"

Peter couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Okay," he said. "where do you wanna take me this time?"

* * *

Pepper Potts gazed at the email on the screen of her phone. _Pepper,_ it ran. _Something really weird's going on. I need you over at the Avengers Ground Base, can you get some time off? Tony._

She pondered this as she sat in the terminal waiting for her next flight. He hadn't contacted her since they'd taken their break, and she wasn't altogether certain that this wasn't a bizarre attempt to invite her back and start over. But in that case, why invite her to the Avenger compound? Especially now, after the fiasco the media was calling the implementation of the Sokovia Accords?

Obviously whatever Tony wanted, it was Avengers-related and probably not strictly optional. And it probably wasn't going to be pleasant either. She heaved a sigh, canceled her flight, and dialed him.

* * *

"Okay," muttered Jane Foster, gazing up at the sky. "Here goes nothing." She took a deep breath. "Heimdall!" she shouted at the top of her voice. "Could you open the Bifrost, please?"

* * *

It took nearly a month, but eventually the last plane touched down on the Wakandan hangar, and Thor and Jane Foster were whisked away to the unbelievably luxurious palace (one that made Tony positively _green_ with envy) by King T'Challa's Head of Security, an intimidating woman with short hair and a curt manner. There the foreign guests were hosted splendidly and treated courteously (Accords supporters and detractors alike), the security and staff for the most part taking their tone from their king. And if they had to remain in total secrecy, rarely going outside and never appearing in public, there was at least space enough inside that no one would feel crowded or claustrophobic - at least not for a long time.

It was the day after Thor and Jane had arrived that T'Challa finally had James Barnes brought out of cryostasis. Steve presented the situation to his old friend as an "extended therapy session," to which Bucky reluctantly agreed. And so, that very evening on July 29, the viewing began.

* * *

**A few additional notes:**

_**Babochka** _ **is the Russian word for Butterfly, according to Google Translate.**

**I know a lot of people seem to have taken it for granted that Tony and Pepper have actually broken up and are quite unhappy about it. The fact is, we're told no such thing - only that they're 'on a break.' In fact, I don't think the Russo brothers consider them permanently over - or at least here's what Joe Russo said during an interview with Comic Book News:**

" **I think there was a Red Hulk rumor. There was a 'Pepper Potts is in the movie' rumor. That rumor may have come because we sat down and talked to Gwyneth [Paltrow] about '[Avengers:] Infinity War.' People might have misinterpreted that meeting."**

**This is admittedly not a promise of seeing Tony and Pepper back together for Infinity War, but it's a hint that we shouldn't necessarily assume that they're** _ **not**_ **getting back together.**

**On the ages of Cassie Lang and of Cooper and Lila Barton:**

**Cassie's MCU birthday is July 20, 2008, which means that at the time of the viewing she either is just about to turn eight or has just turned eight (happy birthday, Peanut!). Now the Barton children's MCU ages are not listed, but Abby Ryder Fortson (Cassie Lang) seems from all I can gather to be very nearly the same age as Isabella and Imogen Poynton (Lila Barton), so I've decided to make Lila Barton just a couple of months older than Cassie.**

**Cooper's age was more iffy. Ben Sakamoto's age doesn't currently appear to be listed anywhere, but in** _**Age of Ultron** _ **he looks older than Imogen/Isabella and not old enough to have hit puberty, so it's a safe guess that he was probably no younger than ten and no older than thirteen during the shooting. I've made Cooper Barton thirteen as of July 2016, two to two-and-a-half years younger than Peter Parker.**

**I have no idea what Wakanda is supposed to look like (aside from that brief glimpse we had in the end credits) or what its culture is supposed to feel like, so don't expect any descriptions made of either to be at all detailed. T'Challa himself is something of an enigma in** _**Civil War** _ **, though definitely a very noble and courteous enigma :)**


	2. All About Steve, Here We Go!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The viewing begins.

**And did I mention I own nothing? All rights belong to Marvel Studios. The actual reactions begin in this chapter. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Wanda Maximoff entered what was possibly the biggest entertainment lounge she'd ever seen (bigger even than the one at Stark Tower) and stopped dead.

The room was _full_ of people - not just King T'Challa, Sam, Clint, and Scott Lang, but also Natasha, Stark, Rhodes with his leg braces and a cane, and _Vision_. And these were but a few of the small multitude: there next to Clint was Laura his wife, with Cooper their eldest; there were Pepper Potts and Maria Hill from Stark Industries; there was one-eyed Nick Fury and fair-haired Sharon Carter, formerly of SHIELD; there was Dr. Erik Selvig; and there were Thor and Bruce Banner (where had _they_ come from?). There were also a number of people whom she didn't know at all - a petite brunette woman next to Thor, another somewhat taller brunette clinging to Banner, a third somewhat older brunette with a boy in his mid-teens whom Wanda thought she ought to know, and a young couple cuddling not far from Thor.

"Hey, Wanda!" Sam hailed her, waving. "Come on in and pick a seat. We're just waiting for Rogers and Barnes at this point."

Vision looked up from the ottoman where he was perched, and his eyes met Wanda's. His eyes widened, and his matrix irises spun and turned turquoise with hope, and he began to extend his hand. Then guilt and unhappiness marred his expression, and he pulled his arm down to his side and turned his face away from her.

Wanda wavered a moment before choosing the ottoman next to Vision. She hadn't quite forgiven him for holding her captive at the compound (and of course there was a part of her that had never forgiven him for pulling her from the falling ruins of Novi Grad), but she knew quite well that he had wanted only to keep her from much more unpleasant kinds of imprisonment.

Like the Raft.

She brushed the memory aside, and touched Vision's shoulder, and he turned to her in surprise. "Wanda?" he murmured, and his head spun with all the things he wanted to say. She gave his arm a squeeze. "I know," she told him.

"Forgive me?" he whispered.

"I -" she struggled with her answer. "Yes." And then, just to stop thinking about it, she asked, "Who are all these people?"

With a look of relief, Vision promptly began pointing out the strangers: the woman next to Thor was the celebrated astrophysicist Dr. Jane Foster; the woman next to Banner was college lecturer Dr. Elizabeth Ross; the 'older' woman (she couldn't have been more than fifty) was May Parker and the teenager was her nephew Peter; and the young couple were Jane Foster's assistant Darcy Lewis and her longtime boyfriend Ian Boothby.

Then the door opened again, and in came Steve Rogers with James Barnes leaning against him (his prosthetic arm had not yet been replaced). Wanda felt a jolt of mingled resentment, rage, guilt, and grief from Tony Stark's direction, though he said nothing.

Steve was focused on getting James (or Bucky, as he apparently preferred to be called) to a seat, and ended up dumping him on the couch nearest the door, right next to Rhodey as it happened. Wanda heard Rhodes quietly ask Bucky how he was doing; Bucky mumbled an uncomfortable-sounding "Fine" that didn't sound entirely convincing.

But Thor was ecstatic. "Rogers!" he said happily. "It's been too long."

"Thor?!" Steve gaped at the Asgardian. "What are _you_ doing here?"

But before Thor could answer, Tony broke in. "Okay, time for business," he said, standing up with a DVD case in hand, and a hint of the smug self-satisfaction that he had been known for crossed his face. "Ladies, gentlemen, Highness," he gave T'Challa a nod. "I now present to you -" he looked down at the case. "- Captain America, the First Avenger, otherwise known as 'all the dirt on Steve Rogers, start to finish'." And he opened the case and slipped the disc into the player.

Wanda looked quizzically at the Vision, who shrugged his shoulders.

"This should be good!" said Sam merrily, and Steve sighed. "Could you at least _try_ not to sound so happy about it, you asshole?" he grumbled.

T'Challa raised a hand. "Barnes?" he inquired, and that individual's shaggy head turned in the King's direction. "What is the Captain's personal policy concerning foul words?"

Laughter began to ripple around the lounge, and Steve groaned.

"This Captain?" Bucky stabbed Steve in the shoulder with his forefinger. "Has a mouth like a fishwife. Why?"

"A little bird might have told me a tale of the Captain once reproving Stark for his language," said T'Challa smugly.

" _Once!_ " cried Steve as Bucky turned a look of disbelief on him. "That was _one_ time!" He turned and pointed at Clint and Sam. "Which of you was it?"

"Guilty as charged!" grinned Clint.

"In fairness," put in a grinning Thor. "I believe we had left a children's benefit concert not four hours before. Stark taught the little ones so many new words we were nearly thrown out."

"Okay, here we go," said Tony, pressing the play button and returning to his seat.

"Hoo boy, this is embarrassing already," muttered Steve.

The sound of a gust of wind swept throughout the room as the opening credits rolled, before a frozen wasteland appeared on the screen. Two bright lights like headlights appeared through the snow; a truck was driving through the storm toward a man wrapped in winter gear. He held a lamp in one hand and was waving with the other.

Steve frowned. "What's this?"

"Shh, it's barely started," said Natasha.

The truck pulled to a stop, and two men dressed equally warmly climbed out of it and approached him.

" _You the guys from Washington?"_ asked the man with the light.

" _You get any other visitors out here?"_ said the taller of the two 'guys from Washington.'

" _How long have you been on site?"_ inquired the other.

" _Since this morning,"_ the man with the lamp led the way over the snow as he talked. " _A Russian oil team hauled it in about eighteen hours ago."_

"Where's this happening anyway?" asked Tony.

Fury exchanged a silent glance with Maria Hill.

" _How come nobody spotted it before?"_ asked one of the guys from Washington.

" _It's really not that surprising. This landscape's changing all the time; you got any idea what this thing is exactly?"_

("Are they walking on _ice_ right now?" hissed May Parker.)

" _I dunno, it's probably a weather balloon."_

"It's not that," muttered Sharon Carter, who appeared to have put two and two together.

" _I don't think so!"_ said the man with the light. " _You know we don't have the equipment for a job like this."_

" _How long before we can start craning it out?"_ asked the taller of the two visitors.

" _I don't think you guys understand,"_ laughed the man with the light. " _You guys are gonna need one hell of a crane!"_

"Gee, this had better be good," said Rhodey.

Even as he spoke, omscreen a great shape loomed up through the mist, surrounded by a number of men. One of them had climbed up on top of the thing and was shining a flashlight around it.

As the image panned up and showed the viewers more of what the thing was, Steve clapped his hand to his mouth. "Oh my God," he muttered shakily.

Sam gave him one look. "That's it, isn't it?" he said. "The _Valkyrie_?"

Steve nodded, his face pale.

"What's the _Valkyrie_?" asked Cooper uneasily.

"The HYDRA plane where they found him," said Clint. He didn't elaborate.

"Ohhh," said Jane. "This is when they dug him out?"

Onscreen, the men had drilled their way inside the great plane and two had lowered themselves inside. " _Base, we're in,"_ said one of them presumably into a comm link, and he and his companion began searching the space, which was covered in a thick layer of snow.

" _What is this?"_ murmured one as they looked around. Steve rubbed his hands over his face as the control room came into view. Something colorful gleamed through the snow-covered ice as a flashlight beam passed over it; the man paused and brushed aside the snow. " _Lieutenant?"_ he called as he looked. " _What is this?"_

His partner came and joined him, also pointing his flashlight on the thing. " _My God,"_ he said. " _Bates, give me a line to the Colonel."_

" _It's three AM, sir,"_ came a faint voice through the comm.

" _I don't care what time it is,"_ growled the Lieutenant. " _This one's waited long enough."_ And as he spoke, they got a look at what the thing in the ice was.

It was Captain America's shield.

Tony's mouth tightened.

The screen went blank for a moment, and the caption _Tonsberg, Norway: March 1942_ appeared in white letters. Then an image of an ordinary, very old church lit up the screen; a man was racing to it as if the hounds of hell were after him. He went bursting inside, bolting the doors behind him and crying out in Norwegian; the subtitle read _They've come for it!_

"What is it this time?" asked Steve.

An old man hastening down the stairs replied in the same language: _They have before._

_Not like this!_ protested the younger man, pointing back toward the bolted doors.

_Let them come,_ said the old man in determination. _They'll never find it._

"They will now, whatever it is," said Natasha glumly.

A tremor shook the ground; the chandeliers rattled, and the ornaments on the walls nearly fell off. It stopped as soon as it had started, and a moment later half the front wall of the church fell in as some great block of stone barged through; both the men sprang back, but the younger one not quite in time - the old man bent forward and saw that he was dead.

It was perhaps a sign that nearly everyone watching had varying degrees of post-traumatic stress that hardly anybody turned a hair at this.

Outside the church, a man pulled up beside a great tank in a black '40s motorcar on which sat a little HYDRA medallion (nearly everyone recognized it from the images that had come out in the dump which had accompanied the fall of SHIELD; the few who didn't were quickly filled in). He climbed out of it and walked inside, black leather boots clicking, black leather trench coat swishing.

"Stylin' and profilin'," said Bucky, whom Wanda thought was being remarkably blasé about being confronted with HYDRA onscreen. Of course he thought it was all part of the process of washing the HYDRA programming out of his head - but still.

"But seriously, those are nice boots," said Clint, pointing.

"Good morals and a good sense of style don't always go together," Tony commented.

Three armed HYDRA men had raced into the room and were tugging at the lid of a large coffin, their commander shouting frantic orders to open it before "he" got there - but they were too late. A tall figure in a dark trench coat strode forward over the rubble and into the church.

" _It has taken me a long time to find this place,"_ said the HYDRA man, and Steve's lips puckered at the sound of his voice. His face was shown a moment later. " _You should be commended,"_ he said to the old man, who lay cowering on the floor.

"That Schmidt?" asked Bruce Banner.

"That's Schmidt," said Steve.

" _Help him up,"_ ordered Schmidt. One of his men pulled the old man to his feet so that he was face to face with the HYDRA leader. " _I think,"_ said Schmidt reflectively. " _that you are a man of great vision, and in this way we are much alike."_

"Does he have to praise himself _every other sentence_?" grumbled Peter Parker, drawing Wanda's attention - _aha! This is Spider-Man!_

Steve found this very amusing. "Classic villain behavior, kid."

" _I am nothing like you!"_ said the old man, his eyes flashing.

" _Of course,"_ said Schmidt lightly. " _But what others see as superstition you and I know to be a science."_

Jane smirked at Erik, who rolled his eyes at her in acknowledgement of an old joke.

" _What you seek is just a legend,"_ said the old man.

" _Then why make such an effort to conceal it?"_ demanded Schmidt.

"Okay - what is it?" asked Scott Lang. "Is this film about Captain America or not?"

Without waiting for a reply Schmidt had taken off his hat, given it to one of his men, and walked over to the stone coffin, boots clicking on the floor. He shoved aside the lid, and looked down on an old skeleton with a bluish translucent object clutched in its hands. He reached down into the coffin to draw it out.

"Is that the Tesseract?" asked Elizabeth Ross doubtfully.

"It can't be," Thor frowned.

" _The Tesseract was the jewel of Odin's treasure room."_ Schmidt looked over the object and dropped it on the floor, where it shattered. His men looked on, clearly stunned.

"Pause it, pause it!" said Clint unexpectedly, and Natasha pressed the pause button. "Jewel of Odin's treasure room?!" he asked incredulously. "The thing was on Asgard originally?"

Everybody looked at Thor.

"It was once housed on Asgard, yes," said Thor. "It was brought to Midgard by my father Odin and kept by mortals for over a thousand Earth years before HYDRA laid hand on it."

"So eventually it went full circle, didn't it, because it's back in Odin's vault now," said Steve thoughtfully.

"So when Loki had both the Scepter and the Cube - " Jane mused out loud.

"Holy shit, he was using _two_ Infinity Stones!" cried Bruce ("Language!" said Tony). "No wonder he was acting a little cracked."

Wanda tracked Thor's train of thought as it went back over every interaction he'd had with Loki from the time he'd snatched him out of the Avengers' Quinjet to the time he'd taken him back to Asgard in chains. He _had_ seemed . . . off, somehow. He wondered just how much the Mind Stone and the Space Stone together had been affecting Loki even as he imagined he was the one in control.

Meanwhile, Natasha had resumed the video.

" _It is not something one buries,"_ Schmidt was saying. " _But I think it is close, yes?"_

" _I cannot help you,"_ the old man said.

" _No,"_ said Schmidt. " _But maybe you can help your village. You must have some friends out there, some little grandchildren, perhaps. I have no need for them to die."_

"No, you _don't_ ," said Steve.

A big tank came rolling up outside, and the old man looked from it to Schmidt in trepidation. Schmidt turned from him and looked around; his eye seemed drawn to a nearby engraving on the wall.

" _Yggdrasil,"_ he said reflectively. " _The tree of the worlds. Guardian of wisdom, and fate also."_ He took a step forward to look more closely, and the Avengers and their friends now clearly saw the straight lines splitting the intricate designs of the roots of the Tree.

"That's a godawful job of hiding something," said Natasha as Schmidt's fingers ghosted over the head of a small serpent among the roots and pushed on the eye. A small drawer sprang from the wall, and Schmidt withdrew it with a triumphant look. It was a closed box with a lid. The old man stared in horror as Schmidt opened the lid, revealing a glimpse of a familiar bluish glow.

"And there it is!" said Steve to Betty Ross.

As the bright light bathed his face, Schmidt murmured, " _And the Fuhrer digs for trinkets in the desert!"_

"Don't knock trinkets in the desert!" said Fury. "Could find anything out there."

"What, like a hammer?" asked Maria with a smirk.

Schmidt was just glancing up at the Cube's former keeper. " _You have never seen this, have you?"_ he asked shrewdly.

" _It's not for the eyes of ordinary men,"_ said the old man, but his eyes gleamed oddly.

" _Exactly,"_ said Schmidt ("Again!" said Peter, who was counting), and abruptly he shut the lid of the box and took back his hat from the man next to him. " _Give the order to open fire,"_ he said.

"Because why not?" grumbled Pepper Potts.

" _Fool!"_ cried the old man as the HYDRA men began filing out. " _You cannot control the power you hold! You will burn!"_

"But he already had, hadn't he?" asked Scott.

" _I already have,"_ said Schmidt ("There ya go!" said Sam), and he drew a gun from his coat and shot the old man through the heart.

"Was that for not helping, or was it just 'cause?" muttered Rhodey.

Schmidt adjusted the skin of his face as his men obeyed his orders, causing Tony to snort. "If the mask didn't fit, why did he wear it?"

The view of the blood dripping onto the HYDRA pin on his jacket kept anyone from answering. "Ew, ew, ew!" groaned Darcy Lewis. "Is that his _face_ dripping?"

But the scene had changed.

* * *

**Whew, okay! Here we go again! Hope you all don't hate me too much for starting this all over.**


	3. Greater in Spirit than in Body

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the team learns even more the kind of man Steve Rogers is, and who Bucky Barnes once was. Steve rediscovers old wounds.

**Of course all rights belong to Marvel Studios.**

* * *

Blue skies and a city skylight flashed briefly across the screen. " _O'Connell, Michael,"_ said a loud monotone. " _Komensky, Henry. . ."_

"Okay, _here_ we go," said Steve as the scene changed again to show a number of shirtless men, some reading newspapers, all obviously getting ready for enlistment.

" _Boy, a lot of guys gettin' killed over there,"_ said one.

" _Rogers, Steven,"_ droned the voice, and down came one of the newspapers to reveal a shockingly small, frail-looking Steve.

"Lookin' fine," said Natasha dryly.

Bucky was shaking his head. "Punk," he muttered.

Wanda and Thor were the only two who hadn't previously had an inkling of the fact that Steve Rogers hadn't always looked the way he did. "That's you?!" cried Thor incredulously, pointing at the screen.

"That's me, long story," said the real (very buff) Steve. Thor looked as if he was going to ask more questions, but he opted to stay quiet.

" _Kinda makes you think twice about enlisting, huh?"_ went on the man next to Steve, who'd been speaking earlier.

"No," said Bucky, rolling his eyes.

" _Nope,"_ said the Steve onscreen as he got up to get checked.

"Course not," said Fury.

" _Rogers,"_ the man at the platform read aloud from Steve's form. He looked at Steve over his glasses, took in the thin frame with the bones sticking out, and then back down at the form. " _What'd your father die of?"_ he asked.

Thor's eyes slid over to Steve, but he remained silent. Wanda looked up at Vision, who simply blinked at her.

" _Mustard gas,"_ said the Steve onscreen. " _He was in the 107th Infantry. I was hoping I could be assigned -"_

" _Your mother?"_ asked the official, his eyes still on the form. The others once again tried hard not to stare at their friend.

" _She was a nurse in a TB ward,"_ said Steve ("Tuberculosis," said his real counterpart to T'Challa by way of explanation). " _Got hit, couldn't shake it."_

A glimpse of the form was awarded to the viewer, a list of Steve's many ailments - asthma, scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, sinusitis, chronic/frequent colds, high blood pressure, palpitating heart, easy fatigue, heart trouble, nervous trouble, household contact with tuberculosis . . .

Bucky harrumphed, Scott whistled in disbelief, and Bruce cringed. "With respect, how did you think you were going to enlist?!" he cried. "How were you supposed to train if you couldn't breathe? How were you supposed to make long marches with easy fatigue and a palpitating heart? Aren't scarlet fever and TB both contagious? And -"

"Bruce, Bruce," said Betty soothingly while the others looked on in amusement, Tony having paused the video. " _Relax_."

Bruce huffed and sat back. "Sorry," he said.

"No, no," said Bucky. "Somebody had to say it."

"Shut up," said Steve. Tony snorted, and something like humor broke out of the corners of his eyes. He resumed the video.

" _Sorry, son,"_ the official was saying.

("Not sorry!" muttered Sam.)

" _Look, just give me a chance,"_ pleaded onscreen Steve.

"A chance to jeapordize your company's safety?" asked Clint skeptically.

" _You'd be ineligible on your asthma alone,"_ said the official.

" _Is there anything you can do?"_

" _I'm doing it,"_ the official stamped a '4F' onto the form. " _I'm saving your life."_

"A lot of lives, indirectly," said Sharon with a lopsided smile.

And then a very old-fashioned screen appeared in a movie theater.

"Ooh, black and white!" said Peter eagerly. His aunt found this very funny.

"Yeah, they used to look like that," she chuckled. Tony actually managed to crack a smile.

" _War continues to ravage Europe,"_ said the voice-over, the screen showing images of a Nazi flag and of soldiers in formation while marching band music played in the background. " _But help is on the way! Every able-bodied young man is lining up to serve his country. . ."_

"Ouch!" said Scott sympathetically.

In the audience, onscreen Steve gazed on as the film showed the young men all in a row being checked by a doctor.

" _Even little Timmy is doing his part,"_ an image of a small boy flashed across the movie screen. " _Collecting scrap metal. Nice work, Timmy!"_

"Aww!" said Rhodey.

" _Who cares?"_ came a loud voice from one of the seats. " _Play the movie already!"_

"What's your problem?" demanded Betty.

Others in the audience glared balefully at the disturber, but Steve asked in a whisper, " _Hey, you wanna show some respect?"_

The other Avengers turned and looked at the real Steve.

"He was being a jerk," grumbled their captain.

"That didn't mean _you_ were supposed to handle it," said Bucky. Steve chose to let this pass.

The fellow let the preview roll on for a few seconds while the announcer commended the brave boys sticking it to the Axis powers. Then he started up again. " _Let's go already!"_ he shouted. " _Hey, just start the cartoon!"_

"I did not pay for this bull," said Clint.

"Dad, you didn't pay for this," Cooper pointed out.

Clint shrugged. "Point."

The other onscreen moviegoers had clearly had it with the idiot, and if Steve hadn't leaned forward and asked " _Hey, you wanna shut up?"_ somebody else soon would have.

The man rose to his feet, his big frame blocking many people's view of the screen, and looked down threateningly at Steve.

"You didn't -!" began Thor, but the scene changed to a back alley behind the theater where the man swung a fist at Steve, the force of the punch sending Steve sailing into the wall behind him.

"Sure did," said Bucky to Thor.

"Forget what I said in Leipzig," said Natasha. "Because obviously you punch your way out of everything."

The real Steve shrugged, in time with his smaller self grabbing up a trashcan lid and holding it up in front of him.

"Hey, I'm practicing my hold!" joked the real Steve.

The man grabbed the trashcan lid, threw it aside, and went right back to beating the living daylights out of Steve.

"Which has come a long way since then," said Maria while onscreen Steve struggled to his feet and prepared for another onslaught.

" _You just don't know when to give up, do you?"_ he asked mockingly.

" _I can do this all day,"_ panted Steve clenching his fists.

"Huh," said Tony curiously, but Wanda saw in his memory a morbidly similar picture of Steve saying the exact same words.

Much more recently.

"Sure ya can," said Fury.

Onscreen, Steve swung a fist at his enemy, who caught his wrist and threw him into the wall again.

" _Hey!"_ shouted a familiar (and yet unfamiliarly smooth) voice, and an olive-colored uniform and hat appeared behind the idiot.

"Oh, hey!" said Sam. The real Bucky waved.

The jolt in Tony's stomach was so severe that Wanda wriggled in mild agony. Vision felt the motion, and looked down at her with such anxious concern that it was _almost_ possible to forgive him at once.

" _Pick on someone your own size!"_ growled onscreen Bucky, for he it was - tall and well-built, his face properly shaved, dark hair slicked back under his hat.

"All right, go Bucky!" cheered Peter. Tony shot the boy a betrayed look which only Pepper noticed (and Wanda felt).

The idiot was stupid enough to swing for Bucky, but Bucky boxed his ear and followed it up with a boot to the arse (Scott applauded, and Clint joined in). The idiot hurried off, and Bucky turned to Steve, who was once again climbing to his feet.

" _Sometimes I think you like getting punched,"_ he said.

"Or you just have no idea when to leave shit alone," grumbled the real Bucky. The real Steve opened his mouth to protest.

" _I had him on the ropes,"_ protested onscreen Steve.

"We could see that," said T'Challa.

Onscreen, Bucky bent down and picked up the papers Steve had dropped. " _How many times is this?"_ he asked, looking over them ("Four," said the real Steve resignedly). " _Oh, you're from Params now. You know it's illegal to lie on your enlistment form. But seriously, Jersey?"_

"Whatever worked," said the Steve on the couch.

"But it wasn't working," said Natasha.

" _You get your orders?"_ asked the Steve onscreen, looking over Bucky's uniform.

" _The 107th, Sergeant James Barnes, shipping out for England first thing tomorrow,"_ returned Bucky promptly.

"107th? Are you serious?" asked Rhodey. "Man!"

Steve shook his head, his face grim. " _I should be going,"_ he said.

"All in good time," murmured Bruce.

 _Sure, if you want to be buried,_ thought Wanda in exasperation. She knew what it was like to try keeping someone that irrepressible out of trouble.

And at least _he_ hadn't been sickly and frail.

Onscreen, Bucky looked at Steve for a moment in silence, sympathy gleaming from his dark eyes. Then a grin spread over his face, and he flung his arm round Steve's narrow shoulders. " _C'mon, man!"_ he cried. " _Our last night - gotta get you cleaned up."_

" _Why? Where're we goin'?"_ asked Steve as Bucky hauled him up the alley toward the street.

" _The future,"_ said Bucky, and handed Steve a newspaper. The front article was headed with a large photo with the caption _1943: The World Exposition of Tomorrow_.

"Stark Expo?" asked Pepper.

"Yeah," said Sharon.

Wanda felt Bucky's stomach lurch this time, and decided that telepathy was vastly overrated.

Then the globe became real, and it was evening at the Stark Expo as Bucky and Steve strolled through the grounds.

" _I don't see what the problem is,"_ said Bucky. " _You're about to be the last eligible man in New York. You know there's three and a half million women here."_

" _Well, I'd settle for just one,"_ said Steve.

"You couldn't get _one_ girlfriend?" asked Tony incredulously, forgetting his misery for a moment.

"C'mon, look at me!" said the real Steve.

"We _are_ ," said Natasha. "The serum didn't change your face. Don't tell me that even 1940s middle-class American white girls are _that_ shallow."

All the other women in the room except for Wanda blinked. Steve raised his eyebrows.

" _Good thing I took care of that,"_ onscreen Bucky was saying, and he waved his hand at two girls, one blonde and one brunette, standing under a statue.

" _Hey, Bucky!"_ cried one, waving back.

"Connie and Bonnie," said the real Steve, smirking.

"Oh yeah! I remember 'em now," said Bucky.

" _What'd you tell her about me?"_ asked the Steve on the screen, rather nervously.

" _Only the good stuff,"_ Bucky smiled.

" _Welcome," boomed a voice over the loudspeaker. "to the Modern Marvel's Pavilion and the World of Tomorrow, a greater world, a better world!"_

Bucky, Steve, Connie, and Bonnie made their way around the exhibit of Phineas Horton's Synthetic Man, a mostly Christmas-red humanoid shape with fair-skinned head and hands. Something about it reminded Wanda of the Vision.

"What's that?" she asked, really of anyone who would answer.

Fury spoke up. "It was an early attempt at something called the Human Torch by a Dr. Phineas Horton," he said. "He was active during World War 2, but he wasn't very well known."

Bucky and Steve looked at each other as if to say "Who knew?"

"Is it a suit, or what?" asked Scott, but the image had already passed.

The dark-haired girl had just pulled Bucky up to the big stage with a squeal of " _Oh my God, it's starting!"_ Her blonde friend came running up behind her, and Steve followed at a walk.

" _Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Howard Stark!"_ cried a woman on a microphone, and they saw the stage lined up with girls in little black uniforms, black stilettos, black top hats, white gloves, and netted tights. Behind them sat an innocent looking red car - if one discounted the rather curious-looking things where the wheels ought to be.

"Is that -" began Maria, with a look at Fury.

Steve began to laugh. "The car!" he chortled. Bucky smirked.

"What about the car?" asked Peter.

"You'll see!" said Steve, still laughing.

The girl with the microphone handed it off to a dark-haired man with a moustache whose stage-smile was pure Tony (both Tony and the real Bucky felt another pang at seeing his face). He pressed a kiss to her lips as she passed it to him; then as she and the other women filed off behind the car he took out a handkerchief and wiped his mouth.

Even Fury smirked, and most of the others laughed.

" _Ladies and gentlemen,"_ said Howard Stark into the microphone, while onscreen Steve tried to offer the blonde girl popcorn and she turned away in disgust ("Rude!" said Laura rather wryly). " _What if I told you that in a few short years, your automobile won't even have to touch the ground at all?"_

"Ooh, it's a hover car!" said May.

" _Yes - thanks, Mandy -"_ Howard went on as the woman nearest him moved past the microphone stand with the tire. " _With Stark gravitic-reversion technology, you'll be able to do just that."_

"Oh boy!" said Jane. "Why do I feel like this is about to go spectacularly wrong?"

"Cause life just goes like that, maybe?" said Steve as Howard Stark pushed a lever on a panel. The car rose slowly off the stage and into the air, while the audience watched in amazement.

"So far, so good," said Tony, watching intently. "Wonder what he used to power it."

" _Holy cow!"_ said onscreen Bucky.

But the real Bucky said "Wait for it -"

The car had only risen about two or three feet off the ground before it sputtered, let off a few sparks, and fell back down onto the stage.

"Aw, crap!" said Bruce.

Everybody winced, including Stark, before the audience began hesitantly applauding and Stark said, " _I did say a few years, didn't I?"_

"Did it ever actually happen?" asked Steve.

"Sure, eventually," said Tony. "Coulson's got a working model now."

"Coulson!" said Clint. "I wonder how he's doing these days."

Onscreen, Steve had turned his head and was looking back at a US recruitment sign ( _I Want You!_ ). Howard tried to recover his composure after his rather rather crushing embarrassment.

" _Hey, Steve,"_ said Bucky, turning away from the stage. " _Whatdya say we treat these girls -"_ But there was now no Steve beside him.

"Hey, where's Steve?" asked Pepper.

"Need you _ask?_ " the real Bucky rolled his eyes.

The next scene showed the entrance to a United States Armed Services Recruitment center ("Again?" asked T'Challa curiously ). In front of one of those mirror-pictures where you see your own face surrounded by a painted soldier's hat and uniform, Steve paused to look. His own head was barely visible above the painted collar.

"So _small_ ," muttered Thor, wagging his head.

Onscreen, Bucky swatted Steve's shoulder from behind. " _Come on, you're kind of missing the point of a double date,"_ he said. " _We're taking the girls dancing."_

"Didn't look like much of a double date to me," muttered Tony.

But Steve and Bucky had both heard. _If he's cracking jokes about me and Buck already. . ._ Steve was suddenly pierced with a spark of hope.

" _You go ahead, I'll catch up with you,"_ said onscreen Steve, turning away from the picture.

"Again, your Highness," said Bucky helpfully to the King.

Omscreen Bucky stopped and gazed down at his friend. " _You're really gonna do this again?"_ he sighed.

" _Well, it's a fair, I'm gonna try my luck,"_ said Steve, not quite looking at Bucky.

" _As who, Steve from Ohio?"_ Bucky seemed to have had it. " _They'll catch you, at worst they'll actually take you."_

"How many times did you intend to try?" asked Betty.

"As many as it took," said the real Steve.

"Or until you got yourself freakin' _arrested_ ," said the real Bucky.

"But I didn't _get_ arrested, I got in on Project Rebirth," Steve countered.

Bucky gritted his teeth and said nothing. Wanda heard all the words he wanted to say tearing through his mind. She pitied his past self his position, and allowed herself a moment to remember Pietro's recklessness and all he'd out her through trying to contain him. _Has he truly been gone only a year?_

" _Look, I know you don't think I can do this -"_ onscreen Steve was beginning.

" _This isn't a back alley, Steve it's war!"_ snapped Bucky.

" _I know it's a war -"_

" _Look, why are you so keen to fight, there are so many important jobs-"_

("There _always_ are, and no one wants to do 'em," muttered Rhodey.)

" _What do you want me to do, collect scrap metal in my little red wagon -"_

"If it keeps you alive!" Bruce flung up his hands.

"Would you guys just -" began the real Steve.

" _Yes, why not?"_

" _I'm not gonna sit in a factory Bucky - Bucky, come on! There are men laying down their lives. I got no right to do any less than them. That's what you don't understand - this isn't about me."_

" _Right,"_ said Bucky. " _Cause you've got nothing to prove."_

"A sickly warrior is a danger only to his own side," observed Thor. "Bucky is right."

"Amen, hallelujah!" shouted Bucky, pointing at Thor. "Listen to the god, why dontcha?"

Steve gave Thor the finger.

" _Manners_ , Captain!" said Thor.

Meanwhile, onscreen, a man with hair that had once been dark and was now mostly gray had come up to listen in on the conversation. His glasses shone curiously as he stood watching the small man arguing with the uniformed soldier. Wanda had come to the conclusion that a person's glasses could be very emotive.

" _Hey, Sarge!"_ called one of the two girls from the foot of the steps into the recruitment center. " _Are we going dancing?"_

Bucky swung round to face her, all suave and charm. " _Yes we are!"_ he sing-songed.

"Ooh, spare the charm, Sarge!" drawled Natasha. Wanda got the distinct idea that she was _flirting_ with Bucky Barnes. Who had shot her. Twice. And tried to strangle her.

Natasha Romanoff was a _strange_ woman.

"If you insist, gorgeous," Bucky drawled back, even as the thought _I haven't gotten my flirt on for seventy-five years!_ went through his mind.

". . . okay, did that just happen?" asked Steve.

Onscreen Bucky was just turning back to Steve, shaking his head. " _Don't do anything stupid until I get back,"_ he said.

" _How can I?"_ returned the Steve onscreen. " _You're taking all the stupid with you."_

Bucky paused halfway down the steps. Then he walked back up to Steve. " _You're a punk,"_ he muttered, throwing his arms around his small friend.

"You were," said the real Bucky.

" _Jerk,"_ said Steve, stretching his spindly arms up around Bucky's neck.

"You still are," said the real Steve.

" _Be careful,"_ said Steve as Bucky walked away. " _And don't win the war till I get there!"_

And Bucky stopped, turned, and gave Steve a salute before he went to join Connie and Bonnie. " _C'mon girls,"_ he said. " _They're playing our song."_

"Both of them?" asked Sharon curiously. The real Bucky actually flashed her a grin.


	4. And He Passed Each Test with Flying Colors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Natasha properly "meets" Dr. Zola, the Cube gives a demonstration, Steve finally manages to join the army, and Dr. Abraham Erskine shows his insight.

**All rights belong to Marvel Studios.**

* * *

Onscreen, Steve watched, his lips twitching with a smile, as Bucky took Connie on one arm and Bonnie on the other. Then he turned round for yet another attempt to enlist. The man with the glasses followed him.

"History in the making!" Sam rubbed his hands. "That's gotta be Dr. Erskine, right?"

"Yep, that's him," said Steve.

The Steve on screen was in the doctor's office sitting on top of the table, the doctor getting ready to examine him, when a nurse came in and whispered in the doctor's ear.

"Oh dear," said Vision worriedly.

"Zackly," said Steve.

" _Wait here,"_ said the doctor to Steve, and followed the nurse out of the room.

" _Is there a problem?"_ asked onscreen Steve.

" _Just wait here,"_ said the doctor, and he vanished.

"I told you," said Bucky. "I _told_ you."

Onscreen Steve looked nervously at the sign on the wall behind him - _It is illegal to falsify your enlistment form_ \- and fidgeted on the table for a moment. Then he hastily climbed down and hurriedly put his shoes back on. But before he had quite finished, a uniformed guard entered the room ("Fail!" said Cooper). Steve froze, but the guard did not speak, and in a moment the man who had been watching him earlier, Dr. Abraham Erskine, came into the room holding a folder.

" _Thank you,"_ he said quietly to the guard, who nodded, withdrew, and shut the curtains behind him. Steve stared up at the man with 'caught forging hundred dollar bills' written all over his face.

"Could you at least not _look_ like you're tryin' to -" began Bucky.

"Yeah, okay, I get it," said Steve.

" _So!"_ said Dr. Erskine. " _You want to go overseas, kill some Nazis?"_ He spoke with something of a German accent.

"Yes and no," murmured the real Steve.

Onscreen Steve blinked. " _Excuse me?"_

" _Dr. Abraham Erskine,"_ the man stepped forward and held out his hand, which Steve shook automatically. " _I represent the Strategic Scientific Reserve."_

"Dun dun dun!" sang Clint.

" _Steve Rogers,"_ said that individual ("And did I really just do that when I was trying _not_ to get caught?!" moaned the real Steve).

Dr. Erskine smiled, and opened the folder.

" _Where are you from?"_ asked Steve, probably more to gain time than anything.

Erskine looked up. " _Queens, 73rd Street._ ("Queens, really? Wow!" said Peter) _Before that, Germany."_ He looked keenly at Steve, who seemed surprised. " _This troubles you?"_ he asked.

Steve shook his head mutely.

"Sorta . . ." said his real counterpart rather guiltily.

" _Where are you from, Mr. Rogers, hum?"_ continued Dr. Abraham Erskine, looking back at the folder. " _Is it New Haven, or Params?"_

"Oh, shit," said Scott.

"Language," said Rhodey absently.

Bucky glared at the real Steve, more words bouncing around his mind which he chose not to say. Steve glared back at Bucky, daring him to speak.

Onscreen Steve remained silent.

" _Five exams, five different cities -"_

" _That might not be the right file,"_ said Steve quickly ("Did I tell you you're a terrible liar?" asked Natasha. "Yes, you told me," said Steve.).

" _Oh, it's not the five exams I'm interested in,"_ said Dr. Erskine. " _It's the five tries._ ("Lucky you," said Sharon.) _But you didn't answer my question."_ He shut his folder and looked back at Steve. " _Do you want to kill Nazis?"_

Steve looked cautiously at the German. " _Is this a test?"_ he asked.

" _Yes."_ ("Obviously!" said Tony.)

Steve thought for a moment. " _I don't want to kill anyone,"_ he said at length. " _I don't like bullies; I don't care where they're from."_

"Huh," said Tony. It was all he said, but the room seemed to grow cooler for just a moment.

"God's righteous man," said Vision half aloud. Steve started, and looked at him, and Wanda heard in his memory Ultron's mocking voice in Wakanda. She wondered suddenly if they ought to report the black market Vibranium dealings to T'Challa. Probably.

Onscreen, Erskine was looking Steve up and down. " _Well,"_ he said. " _There are already so many big men fighting this war - maybe what we need now is a little guy, eh?"_

"And so the war was changed forever!" said Darcy dramatically.

" _I can offer you a chance,"_ said Erskine as he drew the curtains and turned to go. " _Only a chance."_

"That's good enough!" said Pepper.

" _I'll take it!"_ said Steve, following Erskine out of the room.

" _Good!"_ Erskine laid Steve's folder down on a table. " _So where is the little guy from, actually?"_

A few chuckles weaved through the entertainment lounge.

A smile tugged at onscreen Steve's lips. " _Brooklyn,"_ he said.

Erskine stamped something on the folder and handed it to Steve. " _Congratulations, soldier,"_ he said as he walked off.

Steve opened the folder, and on the corner of his latest medical exam was a clear 1A.

"What does that sign mean?" asked Thor in what he imagined to be a whisper.

"That I'm medically fit to enlist," said the real Steve with a wink.

Thor looked impressed.

And then the scene changed to a view of great snowy mountains (the Bavarian Alps, according to Steve) in which sat the Castle Klaufmann, Schmidt's headquarters at the time (the few who didn't know this were quickly updated by those who did).

" _Are you ready, Dr. Zola?"_ asked Schmidt, stepping away from the window.

"There he is, Nat," said Steve.

"Hi, Zola," said Natasha.

" _My machine requires the most delicate calibration,"_ replied a voice that Wanda head echoed faintly and distortedly through both Steve and Natasha's memories. " _Forgive me if I seem overcautious."_ They saw his face then, and though they recognized it from the pictures it was still a bit of a shock to see him almost in the flesh, standing at one of the great machines and peering into it, glasses radiating nervousness.

"Hey, you know, cautious is good when you're working with that thing," said Bruce.

"Hear, hear," said Thor.

" _And are you certain that those conductors of yours can withstand the energy suge long enough for transference?"_ asked Schmidt, putting down a picture he'd briefly picked up and glanced at (it was of an old engraving featuring the Cube).

"I'm not," said Tony, who had been examining the entire setup (or what could be seen of it) with interest.

" _With this artifact I am certain of nothing,"_ Dr. Zola turned from what seemed to be a large microscope and went to look over what looked like a control panel. " _It may not work at all."_

"That looks real advanced for 1943," Tony.

"Hey, we weren't cavemen back then!" protested Steve.

"Hush," said Bruce, and both Tony and Steve were quiet.

Schmidt brought the still closed box from the Norwegian church to the part of the machine built to hold it. He opened it, and his face was instantly bathed in the Cube's bluish-white glow.

Dr. Zola put on dark goggles over his glasses and watched as Schmidt picked up the Cube, not with his hands, but with a thing of some metal with four arms and a handle on top ("Even he dares not touch it," said Thor). He lowered the Cube into the receptacle, and turned the handle to lock it in.

Everything around the Cube began glowing blue ("Ooh!" said a number of voices), and Zola looked over the control panel with one hand on a dial. " _Twenty percent,"_ he said as he began to slowly turn it. " _Forty. . .sixty. . .stabilizing at seventy percent. . ."_ The needle slowed almost to a stop, and wiggled.

Schmidt strode impatiently over to the control panel and shoved Zola aside. " _I have not come all this way for safety, doctor,"_ he said, and cranked the dial.

"No, no, no!" protested Bruce.

"Oh, boy," said Maria.

The machine began to vibrate. Then, with a bang, litle charges of bright blue went scorching all over the cables and panels and even the walls and ceiling.

"Holy -" spluttered Scott.

"Yikes!" squawked Jane.

Then, just as quickly as it had begun, the surge of energy ended, leaving everything dark and a bit smoky.

"O-kay, then," muttered Rhodes.

Zola was obviously agitated. " _What was that?!"_ he hissed at Schmidt.

"Science," said Bucky. Steve swatted him.

Schmidt pointed as if in a trance to the Cube, which still glowed brightly. " _I must congratulate you, doctor,"_ he said. " _Your designs do not disappoint, though they may require some slight reinforcement."_

"Oh, just a little!" said Jane sarcastically.

Zola was inspecting the machine the Cube was sitting in with amazement. " _The exchange is stable,"_ he breathed. " _Amazing! This energy, if it were collected, could power my designs - all my designs!"_ He whipped off both his glasses and his goggles. " _This,"_ he pronounced. " _will change the war!"_

"Eh," said Sharon noncommittally.

" _Dr. Zola,"_ said Schmidt coming up beside him. " _It will change the world!"_

Steve looked back at Fury with a glint of irony. Fury shrugged.

"Hey, he went a whole scene without praising himself again!" said May to Peter.

The scene changed to a view of a training ground, where various groups of men were engaged in various exercises. Steve was standing in a line of soldiers, all of whom were awaiting orders.

" _Recruits, attention!"_ called a sharp British _female_ voice. Sharon's lip curled, and she looked at Steve.

"She was your aunt, yes?" T'Challa confirmed. Sharon nodded.

" _Gentlemen, I'm Agent Carter,"_ said the woman who looked like she merited the term "Sergeant" more than "Agent." " _I supervise all operations for this division."_

Onscreen, Steve glanced nervously round at all the exercising men.

" _What's with the accent, Queen Victoria?"_ asked one of the men in Steve's line with a roguish grin. " _Thought I was signing up for the US Army!"_

"Hey, asshole," said Bucky. "You wanna get your face broken, asshole?"

"This is gonna be good!" said Sharon as her onscreen aunt (Agent Carter, to the idiot Hodge) turned on the insolent man with a glare that would have blistered concrete.

" _What's your name, soldier?"_ she asked in a dangerously level voice.

" _Gilmore Hodge, your Majesty,"_ returned the fool, still smirking.

"Fool! Do you not know death when you see it?" said Thor scornfully. Most of his friends giggled, knowing the reference.

" _Step forward, Hodge,"_ barked Carter. Hodge snickered at his fellows (who wisely remained silent) and sauntered toward the woman.

"C'mon, tear him up!" said Rhodey.

" _Put your right foot forward,"_ said Agent Carter (up close she was really quite the looker, like her niece).

Hodge obeyed with a swagger. " _We gonna wrassle?"_ he asked, waggling his eyebrows. " _Cause I got a few moves I know you'll like."_ And he winked.

Sergeant Carter struck Hodge across the face so hard he fell over with an undignified " _oof!_ "

The Avengers and their friends cheered. Onscreen-Steve hid his smile under his too-large hat.

" _Agent Carter!"_ called a voice, and she whirled around. " _Colonel Phillips,"_ she said, standing at attention.

" _I can see that you are breaking in the candidates, that's good!"_ An elderly man with a severe, weathered face had just climbed down from an automobile and come up on the scene. He glared down at Gilmore Hodge. " _Get your ass up out of that dirt and stand in that line of attention until somebody comes and tells you what to do,"_ he snapped.

"Good for her, she's got official backup," said Sam.

" _Yes, sir!"_ Hodge scrambled to obey, sniffing up the drips from his bleeding nose.

"Just so you know, I don't think he ever sassed her again," said the real Steve with a grin.

"I should think not!" said T'Challa.

Phillips looked over the line of new recruits, and began to pace in front of them. " _General Patton has said that wars are fought with weapons but they are won by men,"_ he said ("That's a damn good quote," said Fury). " _We are going to win this war because we have the best. . .men."_ His eye had just fallen on rail-thin Steve, and he glanced reproachfully back at Dr. Erskine, who had appeared beside Agent Carter. " _And because they are going to get better. Much better."_

"Oh, classy," said Betty with a snort. Wanda took the opportunity to get a good look at the woman - her father was Secretary Ross, who had once been a military general, and it was he rather than Colonel Phillips, that she saw and heard. Her grudge against him seemed to have something to do with Bruce, but it was far too complicated to be explored at length.

Then the scene changed as the Colonel spoke on. " _ **The Strategic Scientific Reserve is an Allied effort made up of the best minds in the free world."**_ ("Makes sense Stark was in on it, then," Fury commented) Steve and his fellow recruits were now in their cabins getting ready for training. " _ **Our goal is to create the best army in history."**_ And now they were climbing a jungle gym made with ropes, Steve falling miserably behind, even slipping and dangling upside down to scornful laughter from Hodge and a shout of " _Rogers! Get off of there!"_ from the observing Sergeant ("That is hardly funny!" protested Vision). " _ **But every army starts with one man. At the end of the week, we will choose that man. He will be the first in a new breed of super soldier."**_ Now they were crawling under a mesh structure, Steve obviously struggling. Hodge, who was passing by him, kicked the prop next to him and brought half a yard of mesh crashing down on him ("That is so _not cool!_ " huffed Darcy indignantly.) - " _Rogers - get that rifle out of the mud!"_ shouted the Sergeant as Agent Carter watched. " _ **And he will personally escort Adolf Hitler to the gates of hell."**_

"Woulda been nice," said the real Steve dreamily.

And now the omscreen recruits were running a track, Steve yards behind the others. " _Pick up the pace, ladies!"_ shouted the Sergeant who was running beside them and keeping up with them easily ("How old even is this guy?!" complained Tony). " _Let's go, let's go! Double time! Come on, faster, faster! Move!"_ Agent Carter was sitting in an automobile nearby with her hair pinned up, studying the men and taking notes.

" _Squad, halt!"_ barked the Sergeant as they came up to a tall pole with a flag at the top. The men paused, and Steve put his hands on his knees and panted. Phillips pointed up at the flag. " _That flag means you're only at the halfway point!"_ he shouted. " _First man to bring it to me gets a ride back with Agent Carter. Move! Move!"_

"A ride with the hot chick - there's a motivator!" said Rhodey.

The men (all except for Steve) made a rush at the pole, elbowing and shoving and climbing and sliding down and yanking down others who were climbing. Fury shook his head "Dunderheads," he muttered. The real Steve chuckled again.

" _Nobody's got that flag in seventeen years!"_ said the Sergeant as he watched. " _Now fall back into line! Let's go! Get back into formation!"_

All the men but Steve hurried back into formation as commanded, but Steve walked up to the flag, looking it up and down.

" _Rogers! I said, fall in!"_ barked the Sergeant, but Steve bent down and unscrewed the base of the pole; it and the flag came down with a thud.

"Seventeen years?" asked Maria dubiously as the onscreen Steve walked calmly over to the flag and picked it up. "Really?"

" _Thank you, sir,"_ said Steve handing over the flag as he walked up to the automobile. He climbed up behind Agent Carter, who seemed to be trying not to laugh, and gave her a salute. She favored him with a smile as the driver started up.

"Aww," said Bruce. Steve got up and socked him.

Then the scene changed, and the recruits were doing push-ups. " _Faster, ladies, come on,"_ she urged. " _My grandmother has more life in her, God rest her soul - move it!"_

"Harsh!" said Laura, raising her eyebrows.

Poor Steve was gasping for breath, his skinny frame trembling as he tried to raise himself on his arms.

"You look like you're about three steps from dying," said Bruce.

"Thanks, Doc!" said Steve. "Any other diagnoses you wanna perform?"

" _You're not seriously thinking of picking Rogers, are you?"_ Phillips asked of Erskine as they observed the recruits perform jumping jacks.

"But of course!" said T'Challa.

" _I am more than just thinking about it - he is the clear choice,"_ said Dr. Erskine placidly but immovably.

The real Steve blushed a bit. Bucky thumped him on the back.

" _You brought a ninety-pound asthmatic onto my army base, I let it slide. I thought, what the hell, maybe he'd be useful to you, like a gerbil. I never thought you'd pick him."_ Phillips was having none of it. " _You stick a needle in that kid's arm, it's gonna go right through him."_ He looked at Steve, his limbs flopping weakly. " _Look at that. He's making me cry."_

"Not for long!" said Pepper merrily.

" _I am looking for qualities beyond the physical,"_ said Dr. Erskine patiently.

"Which makes sense, if the physical is what's actually going to be taken care of," said Darcy. The following words "You dummy" did not have to be said to be felt.

Phillips sighed. " _Do you know how long it took me to set up this project?"_ he asked in a lower voice. " _All the grovelling I had to do in front of Senator what's-his-name's committee?"_

" _Brandt, yes, I know, I am well aware of your efforts,"_ said Erskine.

" _Then throw me a bone,"_ pleaded Phillips. " _Hodge_ ("- the hell?!" hissed Clint.) _passed every test we gave him. He's big, he's fast - he obeys orders, he's a soldier."_

" _He's a bully,"_ said Erskine critically.

"Exactly!" Rhodey seconded.

Phillips scoffed. " _You don't win wars with niceness, doctor,"_ he said, and reached into a nearby supply wagon for a dummy grenade. " _You win wars with guts."_ And he threw the thing into the midst of the men with a shout of " _Grenade!"_

Agent Carter and all the men leaped away from the dummy - except for Steve, who threw himself _on top of it_ shouting " _Get away! Get back!"_ at the top of his hoarse voice.

More than one viewer's jaw dropped. Bucky briefly shut his eyes and muttered a prayer under his breath.

"Whoa!" said Cooper, his eyes round as golf balls.

Wanda gawked at the real Steve. "And you didn't even know it was a test," she said.

Steve was bright red. "Uh-uh. Just doing my job."

Fury gave him an appraising look. "And I wasn't sure about you when the HYDRA takeover went down," he said.

Everybody around the smaller Steve was staring in amazement. Agent Carter had started forward, eyes wide, and stopped when no explosion came. " _Dummy grenade!"_ somebody shouted, and Steve looked up rather blankly.

A smile spread slowly over Agent Carter's lovely face, and Erskine exchanged a significant look with Phillips.

" _Is this a test?"_ asked Steve, panting a little.

"Well, duh!" Bucky flung up his hands.

" _He's still skinny,"_ said Phillips, and marched off. But Erskine looked at Steve, and smiled.


	5. To the Little Guys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve is chosen for the injection, the Avengers comment on Steve's love life, and Schmidt shows Zola his 'true colors'.

**All rights belong to Marvel Studios.**

* * *

Still a bit awed by the rather spectacular show of heroics on the part of a still sickly Steve Rogers, the Avengers and their friends were remarkably quiet as they watched Steve sitting alone on his cot and reading in another scene.

A knock sounded on the door of the cabin, and Dr. Erskine poked his head in. " _May I?"_ he asked.

" _Yeah,"_ said Steve looking up (though what else could he say?).

Erskine came in with a bottle and two cups. " _Can't sleep?"_ he asked.

" _Got the jitters, I guess,"_ said Steve, watching as Erskine set down the glass and sat down on the cot across from him.

"I'm sure you do," said Sam.

" _Me too,"_ said Erskine as he made himself comfortable, or as comfortable as one can make oneself on an army cot. " _Can I ask you a question?"_

"And that was one," murmured Laura out of maternal habit. Cooper discreetly rolled his eyes.

" _Just one?"_ said Erskine, and Natasha shrugged.

" _Why me?"_ asked Steve.

"Why the hell _not_ you, you self-deprecating abnegate?" muttered Bruce.

("You should talk, Banner," said Tony.)

Erskine was silent for a while. " _I suppose that is the only question that matters,"_ he said at length, and he turned the bottle so that Steve could see the label. " _This is from Augsburg, my city."_ He looked keenly at Steve, but the American said nothing ("That was probably some good wine," said Clint). " _So many people forget that the first country the Nazis invaded was their own._ ("Yes, I suppose it is sometimes hard to remember that," said Wanda aloud) _You know that after the first war, my people struggled. They felt weak, they felt . . . small. Then Hitler comes along with the big show and the marching and the flags and the . . ."_ he gestured vaguely, and then adjusted his glasses.

"'For the Fatherland' and all," muttered Fury.

" _Then he hears about me, my work, and he finds me,"_ Erskine went on. " _He says 'you,' he says, 'you will make us strong.' Well, I am not interested,"_ he put the bottle down on the floor. " _So he sends the head of HYDRA, his research division -"_ ("If Hitler only knew!" said Sharon. "He didn't?" asked Bucky. "No, of course not!" said Sharon.) " _\- a brilliant scientist by the name of Johann Schmidt. Now Schmidt is a member of the inner circle, and he is ambitious. . ."_

"You have _no_ idea . . ." muttered Bucky, his mind running back over the horrible days in the HYDRA factory when he had first been captured. Of course they were nothing compared to the nightmares that followed his second capture, but they weren't at all pleasant.

As Erskine spoke, the scene changed to an image of the man they had seen earlier, in his black uniform and hat. " _He and Hitler share a passion for occult power and Teutonic myth_ ("Ancient Germanic," Betty clarified) _,"_ Erskine went on. " _Hitler uses his fantasies to inspire his followers, but for Schmidt it is not fantasy - for him it is real."_

"I'm pretty sure Hitler believed it was all real too," Laura raised her eyebrows.

" _He has become convinced,"_ Erskine went on. " _that there is a great power hidden in the earth, left here by the gods and waiting to be seized by a superior man._ ("Well, if we'd known it would come to this we wouldn't have left it," grumbled Thor.) _So when he hears about my formula and what it can do, he cannot resist."_ The image changed again, and Schmidt was arguing vehemently with Erskine, even threatening him at gunpoint. " _Schmidt must become that superior man."_ And Schmidt was seen plunging a needle into his arm. Bruce flinched, and Betty rubbed his arm.

"Only superior physically," remarked T'Challa.

" _Did it make him stronger?"_ asked Steve.

"Yep," said Bucky and the real Steve almost in unison.

" _Yes,"_ Erskine laughed without mirth. " _But there were other effects."_ Schmidt seemed to be crying out in agony; his features were writhing and twitching (more than one viewer winced). " _The serum was not ready. But more important, the man. The serum amplifies everything that is inside the man. So, good becomes great, and bad becomes worse."_ ("That explains a lot," said Tony under his breath.)

Erskine looked at Steve with piercing eyes. " _This is why you were chosen. Because the strong man, who has known power all his life, may lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength - and knows compassion."_

" _This_ weak man knows compassion," said Natasha. "Not all of 'em do."

Tony pursed his lips. Steve glanced at him out of the corners of his eyes. Neither spoke.

Onscreen Steve looked up. " _Thanks,"_ he said. " _I think."_ His brow furrowed even as he smiled. Erskine smiled back, and his glasses gleamed. He offered Steve one of the two cups. " _Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing,"_ he said as he poured. " _That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man."_

 _And Dad missed the whole point,_ thought Betty Ross so emphatically and bitterly that Wanda couldn't help but hear it.

"That sounds like a lot to live up to," said Scott.

"You bet it is," said Steve.

Onscreen Steve smiled and held up his glass. " _To the little guys,"_ he said, and Erskine clinked his glass against Steve's before suddenly snatching Steve's drink away. " _No, no, what am I thinking?"_ he cried. " _You have a procedure tomorrow, no fluids!"_

"Oops, that could have been a problem," said Pepper.

" _All right, we'll drink it after,"_ said Steve as Erskine poured his glass into the other one.

But Erskine said, " _No, I don't have a procedure tomorrow. I don't drink it after, I drink it now."_ And so he did, to Steve's amusement.

"Cheers!" said Thor.

Then the scene changed to the HYDRA weapons lab, with someone playing an opera music record ("You know this one?" asked Tony mischievously of Bruce, who rolled his eyes and shook his head). Dr. Zola walked into the room, caught sight of something the viewers couldn't yet see, and stopped dead. At a table near the window, a gloved hand switched off a light, instantly throwing a tall trench-coat-clad figure into shadow. " _Is there something in particular you need?"_ came the voice of Johann Schmidt.

"Oh no, you just have a terrifying blood-red visage is all," said Peter cheerfully.

"He does?" asked Thor. Jane nodded.

Off to the side, a man who appeared to be working on a portrait (with lots of red paint) looked at the doctor with the irritation of a professional who has been interrupted in his work.

Zola composed himself with an effort. " _I, ah, I understand you've found him,"_ he said.

"Damn pronoun game," muttered Bucky, tensing up. So far he was really handling the visual HYDRA reminders remarkably well.

Schmidt gestured with on shadowed hand. " _See for yourself,"_ he said.

Zola moved to a nearby table, and looked over a number of photographs of Dr. Abraham Erskine.

"Aw, shit, they found him!" said Clint.

" _Language,_ Master Hawkeye!" said Thor. Steve sighed but did not comment.

" _You disapprove,"_ said Schmidt flatly as Zola stared down at the photos.

Zola looked up and pasted on a smile. " _I just don't see why you need concern yourself,"_ he said. " _I can't imagine he'll succeed."_

Silence from the shadowed Schmidt.

"Oops," said Steve.

" _Again,"_ added Zola nervously.

"If you can call Schmidt a _success_ ," said Pepper.

"A success on the order of Blonsky," Natasha offered.

" _His serum is the Allies' only defense against the power we now possess,"_ said Schmidt, not sounding unduly angry. " _If we take it away from them then our victory is assured."_

"Think it's a little late for that," said Laura.

Zola looked up, and seemed once again distracted. " _Shall I give the order?"_ he asked.

" _It has been given,"_ said Schmidt.

"Ooh, burn!" said Darcy. She enjoyed sticking it to the bad guys, even if only virtually, as Wanda could see. Wanda found herself liking Darcy very much.

" _Good,"_ said Zola, and he strode away.

" _Dr. Zola!"_ called Schmidt, and turned on the light again. " _What d'you think?"_ he asked.

Zola paused, turned round, and looked from his employer to the portrait. " _A masterpiece!"_ he pronounced. Most of the viewers knew what Schmidt unmaksed really looked like, and more than one of them shuddered.

"That's gotta be one hell of a masterpiece," said Scott. "Literally."

The painter went right back to his work, and Zola left.

The scene changed, and on a busy city street a car honked at a group of young boys playing ball. Inside the car, Steve was in the back seat with Agent Carter. " _I know this neighborhood,"_ he said. " _I got beat up in that alley,"_ he pointed. " _And that parking lot,"_ he jerked his head. " _And behind that diner."_

"And a lot of other places," added Bucky.

"Buck . . ." said the real Steve.

Agent Carter raised her eyebrows. " _Did you have something against running away?"_ she asked.

"You have _no idea_ ," said Clint.

"Yet," said Steve. "She found out."

"I am sure she did," said Wanda.

Onscreen Steve seemed to consider his answer. " _If you start running, they'll never let you stop,"_ he said. " _You stand up, you push back - can't say no forever, right?"_

The woman studied him. " _I know a little of what that's like,"_ she said reflectively. " _To have every door shut in your face."_

"I think that's a little different," said Betty.

"Not really," said Sharon. "She was just as combative as he is."

" _I guess I just don't know why you'd want to join the army if you were a beautiful dame,"_ said onscreen Steve after a quick look up at Agent Carter ("Sure, why would you wanna fight if you could get you a man?" asked Sam in amusement). " _Or - a woman,"_ he corrected hastily as she turned to stare at him. " _An agent. Not a dame. You are beautiful, but -"_ his voice trailed off.

Even Steve was laughing at his onscreen self. "And _that's_ why I couldn't get a girlfriend," he said.

"I tried," said Bucky. "I swear I tried."

Agent Carter seemed to be choosing to be amused rather than angry. " _You have no idea how to talk to a woman, do you?"_ she asked.

"Clearly!" said Clint.

Steve looked rueful. " _I think this is the longest conversation I've had with one,"_ he said. " _Women aren't exactly lining up to dance with a guy they might step on."_

Agent Carter seemed to soften just a bit, barely enough for one to dare to think of her as Peggy. " _You must have danced,"_ she pressed.

"Nope," said Bucky.

"Okay, SHUT IT," said the real Steve.

" _Well, asking a woman to dance always seemed so terrifying,"_ onscreen Steve wasn't looking at Peggy. " _And the past few years it just didn't seem to matter that much. Figured I'd wait."_

" _For what?"_

" _Right partner,"_ said Steve. That made her smile.

"She likes him already," said Jane, glad that Agent Carter had begun to see him in that light before the serum.

The car they were riding in pulled up in front of an antique shop. As Steve and Peggy climbed out of it, two men leaning against a car nearby began to watch them.

"Two people in military uniform going into a shop of antiques, that's not suspicious at all," said Maria.

Steve shrugged. "Now that I think about it, it was kind of obvious," he said as Agent Peggy Carter led his onscreen self into the shop with a terse " _Follow me,"_ in response to his query of " _What are we doing here?"_

Peggy paused in the middle of the room, which seemed a perfectly ordinary antique shop. An elderly woman (in civilian clothes) parted the curtains at the entry from the back and came forward with a smile. " _Wonderful weather this morning, isn't it?"_ she said.

" _Yes,"_ replied Peggy, also smiling. " _But I always carry an umbrella."_

"The weather? Really?" muttered Fury under his breath. "You're just _asking_ to be infiltrated."

The woman crossed the floor to behind the counter where you'd ordinarily have paid for things and pressed a button underneath. A gun was briefly glimpsed hanging behind the counter under her hand.

Steve followed Peggy as she passed through the curtains into another room full of books, with a big bookcase at its back wall.

"Please _don't_ be a secret door, that's so Diary of Anne Frank," pleaded Tony as Carter came to a halt in front of the bookcase.

It _was_ a secret door ("Boo!" Tony complained), which swung open to admit them into a corridor. They passed a woman at a desk, and a number of armed sentries. At the end of the corridor they passed through another set of doors that a pair of guards opened for them, and then came into the room in which history had been changed forever.

"Here we go," said Clint.

Steve stared around at all the men in white lab coats, the great machines covered with switches and dials and meters, and the man-sized chamber in the middle of it all. Peggy cast him a rather anxious look, and then led him down a short flight of steps and into the lab.

Dr. Erskine came to meet Steve as he went down the stairs. " _Good morning,"_ he said, shaking Steve's hand. A big camera flashed from somewhere beside them, and Dr. Erskine turned to look at the photographer. " _Please, not now,"_ he said reproachfully.

Steve looked at the machine obviously meant for him to climb into, rather nervously.

" _Are you ready?"_ asked Erskine.

Steve just nodded.

The other Steve winced. "That was literally the most painful thing I've ever had to do in my entire life," he said. "Well, both my lives, whatever."

" _Good,"_ said Erskine. " _Take off your shirt, your tie, and your hat."_

"And the pants stay on?" asked May skeptically.

The real Steve's jaw swung a bit. Peter choked. "Aunt May!" he spluttered.

"What?" that lady asked. "Do they grow with him?"

Onscreen Steve began fumbling with his clothes and handing them off to an assistant.

Off to the side, where there were a number of seats, Colonel Phillips was shaking hands with a man in a business suit. " _Senator Brandt, glad you could make it,"_ he said gruffly.

"Yeah, you sound like it," said Bucky, who had caught Phillips' earlier complaint about 'grovelling in front of Brandt's committee.'

" _Why exactly am I in Brooklyn?"_ demanded the senator.

" _We needed access to the city's power grid,"_ said the Colonel. " _Of course, if you'd have given the generators I requisitioned -"_

"Asking the Senate for things, good luck!" said Sharon.

" _Lot of people asking for funds, Colonel,"_ Brandt dismissed him. " _Oh, this is Clem, uh. . ."_

" _Fred Clemson, state department,"_ said another man in a business suit who was wearing glasses. He also shook hands with Phillips. " _If this project of yours comes through, we'd like to see it used for something other than headlines."_

" _Geez,"_ said Senator Brandt, his attention diverted by the now shirtless Steve climbing into the machine. " _Somebody get that kid a sandwich!"_

"They have McDonald's back then?" asked Darcy.

"Nope!" said Steve. "There was no McDonald's till after I went under the ice."

Onscreen, Steve was now trying to settle into the machine. He did not quite fit.

" _Comfortable?"_ asked Erskine as he squirmed.

"No," said the real Steve.

" _It's a little big,"_ said Steve with a wry chuckle. " _You save me any of that schnapps?"_

"I'm gonna need it," went on the real Steve.

" _Not as much as I should have,"_ said Erskine contritely. " _Sorry. Next time. Mr. Stark? How are your levels?"_ The last was a call.

Bucky and the real Steve both cringed, which Tony noticed with a little spike of vicious satisfaction.

" _Levels at one hundred percent,"_ said a voice, and Howard Stark came hurrying up beside the German scientist. " _We may dim half the lights in Brooklyn, but we are ready as we'll ever be!"_

"They aren't _actually_ gonna dim half the lights in Brooklyn, are they?" asked Scott.

"Ready steady, ready Freddie," chanted Jane.

" _Agent Carter?"_ asked Dr. Erskine suddenly. " _Don't you think you would be more comfortable in the booth?"_

Peggy seemed flustered. " _Oh, yes of course. Sorry,"_ she said and off she went to join the Colonel upstairs. She looked back at Steve as she went, and he twisted his head to glance over at her in time for their eyes to meet.

"Not a word," said the real Steve.

"Fine, but we can think it," said Clint.

Dr. Erskine picked up a microphone, and thumped it to get everyone's attention. " _Can you hear me? Is this on?"_ his voice echoed all over the lab and inside the booth. " _Ladies and gentlemen, today we take not another step toward annihilation, but the first step on the path to peace. We begin with a series of micro-injections into the subject's major muscle groups. The serum infusion will cause immediate cellular change. And then, to stimulate growth, the subject will be saturated with vita rays."_ He then went to stand beside Steve.

"Oops," said Bruce. Betty rubbed his shoulder. "It's not like we knew," she said.

While Erskine had been speaking, his helpers had begun strapping and bolting Steve in place and pulling tubes of blue serum out of a compartment, before loading them in various places in the machine. Peggy was making herself comfortable in the booth.

One of the women pushed a needle into Steve's arm as he blew out his breath. " _That wasn't so bad,"_ he said to Dr. Erskine.

"Ha!" said Bucky, who remembered his own enhancement.

" _That was penicillin,"_ said Erskine. He turned to the lab at large. " _Serum infusion beginning in five. . .four. . .three. . .two. . .one."_

"Oh man!" said Peter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, Fred Clemson is not his name, but unless people did some pretty extensive reading of all the files Natasha dumped, they might not know his real name.


	6. SSR Protocol: Project Rebirth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve is given the injection, and Project Rebirth is infiltrated. And Steve really needs a sandwich.

**All rights belong to Marvel Studios.**

* * *

A white gloved hand pushed on a lever, and the tubes of blue serum began to empty. Steve groaned, grimaced, and shut his eyes, which flew open again a moment later. He looked like he was in terrible pain.

The real Steve shut his eyes and clamped his lips together, nostrils flaring as he breathed in and out. His friends (especially Bucky) glanced at him, and winced.

"Oh dear," said Vision anxiously.

" _Now, Mr. Stark,"_ said Erskine, and Howard pulled down another lever.

The machine holding Steve slowly tilted upward so as to put him in an upright position. Two pieces on the sides snapped together and a piece on top came down so that Steve was now completely hidden from view.

"You're not claustrophobic, are you?" asked Pepper.

The real Steve shook his head mutely.

In the booth, Peggy watched anxiously. Nobody even thought of commenting.

Someone connected another cable to the machine, and Dr. Erskine walked up to it and tapped on it with his knuckles. " _Steven?"_ he asked. " _Can you hear me?"_

The Avengers held their breath.

" _Probably too late to go to the bathroom, right?"_ came Steve's voice from inside the closed chamber. The real Steve huffed a laugh, his shoulders relaxing a little.

"Again with the pants," said Pepper.

Dr. Erskine turned back to giving directions. " _We will proceed."_

"Fasten your seatbelts," said the real Steve.

Howard Stark moved to another panel and turned a dial. Then he put on a pair of dark glasses and turned a small steering wheel next to a meter. " _That's ten percent!"_ he called out.

"Ten percent of _what?_ " hissed Bruce.

A bright light started to shine from inside the thing that held Steve - they could see it through the chinks and cracks.

" _Twenty percent,"_ Howard counted, tugging at the wheel. " _Thirty. . ."_ Erskine shielded his eyes from the light, which was already _very_ bright.

"Is it supposed to be blinding like that?" asked Bucky. Nobody seemed to know the answer to this.

" _That's forty percent,"_ called Howard.

" _Vital signs are normal,"_ called out an assistant with dark goggles ("Get Erskine a pair, you dimwits!" said Thor between his teeth).

" _Fifty percent,"_ called Howard, trying to look over his shoulder and still twisting the wheel. " _Sixty. . .seventy. . ."_

A metallic ringing began to resound throughout the room, which did nothing to ease the rising tension. The light from inside the chamber was so bright that it lit up the faces of the Colonel and the Senator up in the faraway booth. "Get Erskine some flipping _goggles!_ " howled Clint.

And then, just when everybody's nerves were tense as a bowstring, came the _screaming_ \- the scream of a man in unspeakable agony.

"HOLY MOTHER OF -!" Bucky nearly jumped off the couch.

Cooper (who after all had never heard a grown man actually scream) gave a shriek. The Mind Stone in Vision's forehead was beginning to glow. Little red sparks of energy burst in the air around Wanda's head. Even Fury's hands were clenched. "Jesus Christ," he was muttering. Tony looked drawn and pale, alarmingly corpse-like.

The real Steve had put his head between his knees and was trying not to hyperventilate.

Onscreen, Peggy was up and out of her seat. She raced out of the booth. Erskine ran back up to the machine. " _Steven! Steven!"_ he called frantically.

"Is he dying?!" cried T'Challa.

" _Shut it down!"_ shouted Peggy.

"Felt like it," rasped the real Steve, partially raising his head.

" _STEVEN!"_ roared Erskine, banging on the side.

" _Shut it down!"_ repeated Peggy.

"C'mon," groaned Tony.

" _Kill the reactor, Mr. Stark!"_ called Erskine. " _Turn it off, kill it! Kill the reactor!"_

Howard went flying to obey, but from inside the machine Steve howled, " _NO! DON'T! I CAN DO THIS!"_

Bucky was muttering unspeakable things, his face scarlet.

Howard took the wheel again. " _Eighty,"_ he called out. " _Ninety. . ."_

Erskine stared anxiously toward Steve, his hand over his eyes. Peggy's shoulders were heaving.

" _That's one hundred percent!"_ shouted Howard.

The ringing grew louder, and for a moment the light increased even further. Sparks were flying, parts of the other machines went out with a bang, and the machine holding Steve died down completely. No sound came out of it.

"Holy crap . . ." squeaked Peter.

In the booth, all the spectators rose to their feet. Howard cautiously pulled down his glasses. Erskine and Peggy both looked decidedly rattled.

"Oh my God, that was awful!" groaned Pepper.

"Is it over?" asked Steve warily.

"It's over," said Sam.

"Are you okay?" asked Peter anxiously.

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Steve.

" _Mr. Stark!"_ shouted Erskine, and after a moment's pause the sides slid back and the top came up with a click. And there, his head lolling and chest heaving as he gasped for breath, was _Steve._

But he was no longer the bone-thin little asthmatic who had so struggled to keep up with the other SSR recruits on the training field. This was at last the Steve the others recognized, tall and broad-shouldered and pure _muscle_. He was bare-chested and barefoot.

Wanda felt her jaw drop a bit. She had never seen Steve without a shirt on before.

"My _God_ , what a six-pack!" cried Pepper, gaping.

"And the pants stayed on!" complained May at the same time.

"See, who the hell looks like that?!" grumbled Sam, pointing.

" _Son of a bitch did it!"_ said the Colonel as all the men around him hurried excitedly out of the booth.

"Would you believe it," said Bucky with a large sigh.

"Those _abs_ , though!" said Scott enviously.

Fred Clemson's glasses gleamed, and Wanda felt a small prickle of unease from Vision, especially as the man got up from his chair and left some silver rectangular object behind him.

"Uh-oh," said Tony.

Erskine and Howard helped Steve out of the machine. " _D-did it,"_ he panted.

"Barely," muttered the real Steve. "Where's that sandwich?"

" _Yeah, I think we did!"_ said Erskine, watching him closely.

" _You actually did it!"_ said Stark.

Peggy rushed up and paused right in front of him, looking him up and down. " _How d'you feel?"_ she asked.

"Bigger?" suggested Bruce.

Onscreen Steve huffed and puffed for a moment before saying only, " _Taller."_

"That's a way of putting it," said the real Steve rubbing his neck. "I _really_ need a sandwich. Isn't there supposed to be food around. . .here?"

For on the coffee table right in front of the screen (where there had almost certainly been nothing before) was a tray with a large bottle, cup, and plate holding _three_ big sandwiches and a generous heap of waffle fries. A note was pinned on the bottle which read: _Because you needed it. Tell the others that they can have anything they like if they request it. And do try to eat quietly, your friends are enjoying a movie! :)_

Steve pulled the note off the bottle and handed it to Fury before cramming about a third of the first sandwich into his mouth. The others looked at him enviously before Fury said, "Apparently you just have to ask if you're hungry."

Onscreen, Peggy's hand went up to touch Steve almost without her noticing; she withdrew it quickly and took a shirt from somebody else to hand it to Steve. " _You look taller,"_ she said.

Clint wolf-whistled, and Laura swatted him. Steve glared at the archer, though as he was also devouring a sandwich the effect was rather ruined.

" _What d'you think of Brooklyn now, Senator?"_ asked Phillips smugly as he passed him by.

Senator Brandt smiled. " _I can think of some folks in Berlin who are about to get very nervous."_

"Oh yeah!" said Sam with a grin.

Just then the dark-haired Fred Clemson, who had been hanging slightly behind the others, seemed to be looking closely at Dr. Erskine, who caught sight of him and then looked back a second time. Then the man reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small object that looked like a cigarette lighter.

"Oh yay, it's HYDRA again," said Bucky grimly.

And then all hell broke inside the facility. The booth where everyone had been sitting went up in a burst of fire, sending a shower of glass raining down on their heads and backs. Everybody ducked and ran in various directions; in the melee, Clemson dashed to the machine and snatched up a tube of the blue serum.

"Someone grab that guy!" howled Jane at the screen.

" _Stop him!"_ shouted Erskine at exactly the same moment.

Clemson whirled around and yanked a gun from somewhere on his person, firing two shots straight into Erskine's body. There was no way anyone could have missed at such a short range - the man fell flat on his back, blood stains blooming on his white coat.

"SHIT!" shouted Rhodey.

"NOT THE DOCTOR!" wailed Thor.

A nurse screamed; Clemson dashed for the stairs; Peggy drew her own pistol and fired it at him as he ran. But he was running, and was quickly getting further away, and she only managed to get a hit on his shoulder. Clemson tore up the stairs and into the corridor which was the only entry, and shot all the guards dead. He punched a large red button as he ran toward the bookcase-door of the antique shop. Peggy went tearing after him.

Meanwhile, the newly-enhanced Steve bounded to Dr. Erskine's side, his eyes wide with dismay. Erskine's breathing was laboured, but he managed to lift one hand to tap Steve's chest with his finger before his eyes closed.

And Steve lifted his head, his newly muscled limbs flexing as his face hardened.

"All right, go get him, Cap!" said Bucky.

Fred Clemson burst through the curtained opening into the store. The elderly agent swung round with her own weapon at the ready, but he was too quick for her, and gunned her down. He bounded over her collapsing body and grabbed her gun in his free hand, running outside for a car parked nearby with a man sitting at the wheel. He shouted a warning to another man waiting outside it; he turned and shot at two guards who had followed Clemson and had just started shooting. Clemson leapt into the car even as the other man rolled over dead, and the driver pulled away. Clemson shot back at the men as he rode past, and down they went.

"Well, they had it planned to a T, didn't they?" asked Jane.

"This is HYDRA," said Fury. "Of course they did."

Peggy Carter appeared outside the door of the shop just in time for the car to rocket by her ("rocket" being relative, of course). She darted into the street and pointed her gun into the back window of the car. In the passenger seat, Clemson turned and pointed his own gun back at her. Peggy was just about to shoot when the car behind her burst into flames with a bang.

"Crap!" said Clint. "That was their car, wasn't it?"

Peggy had been distracted only for a moment; she turned right back around and fired at the black car. The man driving died at once, and the car veered sideways and slammed into a banana yellow cab. The driver opened his door and climbed out of the car to see if the fellow was all right; but Clemson seized the opportunity and jumped out of his black car and into the yellow one. He sped off just as his former companion was discovered to be dead by the concerned citizen who thought he was helping.

"Leaving your car door open, seriously?" said Rhodey.

Clemson turned the cab right around and headed straight for Peggy, who fired two more shots into the front window. Neither hit him.

"Aren't you going to get out of the way or something?!" howled Darcy.

But at the last instant, just before she either would have killed Clemson or been turned into a grease spot on the street, a big blur bowled her over from the side. The blur stood up and turned into Steve as the cab shot by.

"She won't be -" began Betty.

" _I had him!"_ cried Peggy angrily as she jumped to her feet.

"Happy," finished Betty.

"Yeah, I know," said Steve between bites.

" _Sorry!"_ said the onscreen Steve, and he also scrambled to his feet (which were still bare, by the way) and took off running in pursuit of the cab.

"Now this is more like it!" cheered Thor.

"Now we're talking! C'mon, show us what you're made of, Cap!" Scott rubbed his hands.

Steve's bare feet slapped against the asphalt as he ran down the street. Faster and faster he ran, faster than any mortal man had any right to be running who wasn't in the Olympics, until he actually began to gain on the cab. He tore across alleyways, burst through shop windows (" _Sorry!"_ ), vaulted over fences, darted in and out of traffic (" _Whoa!"_ ), all the while gaining on Clemson.

The lounge erupted in shouts that nearly drowned the video - " _What the hell,_ Rogers -" "That's it, Steve, go get 'em!" "Yah, take that, HYDRA!" "Rogers, you crazy son of a bitch!" "TAKE HIM DOWN, STEVE!"

Wanda's jaw was hanging. Even at the airport hangar in Leipzig she hadn't seen Steve run this fast. She had heard, of course, how fast he could be (though he had _nothing_ on Pietro, whom the team had affectionately nicknamed Quicksilver), but as all non-Quicksilver runners went, this had to be the best she'd seen so far. So much for the ninety-pound asthmatic.

The other Avengers couldn't hold back - even Bruce was cheering like a basketball fan whose favorite player has just made a slam dunk.

Then Clemson thought he'd get clever. He turned the cab around in the middle of the lane and headed in the opposite direction. But Steve didn't even slow down - he just made a U-turn, jumped up on top of an old man's truck, and jumped from car to car until he landed on top of the cab.

"Man, that looks impressive when you're sitting down," said the real Steve, who had finished two of the sandwiches.

"That's because it _is_ impressive, you lugnut," said Fury.

Clemson tried to shake Steve off by swerving back and forth, but Steve held on for dear life. Desperate to shake him off, Clemson fired through the roof of the car. Steve twisted and rolled, and eventually his legs swung over the side so that he was dangling next to the passenger window. Clemson fired at him as he swung.

"No, no, no, no, no!" howled Bruce.

"This dude can drive with an injured arm, he's gonna be hard to kill," said Sam.

Clemson wasn't looking where he was going, and crashed into a parked truck right in front of him. The cab flipped at least twice, somehow landing right side up again. Obviously shaken but very much alive, Clemson crawled out of it and looked around.

The passenger door, and Steve, had gone flying. Steve was now getting up too, and Clemson hastily raised his gun and fired at Steve, who ducked. A small crowd of civilians had gathered, and Clemson fired randomly into the midst of them, sending them flying and screaming.

"What's he think he's doing?" asked Bucky.

Steve grabbed the cab door to defend himself ("Practicing your hold again?" asked Natasha), and ran toward Clemson to stop him, but Clemson grabbed a small boy from his mother and took off with him into a nearby alley.

"Not the child!" cried Thor.

Steve dropped the door and ran down the alley after him, the mother's frantic screams piercing the air. Clemson turned and fired at him, still holding the boy. Steve paused and ducked aside.

"C'mon, do something!" begged Clint.

"Hang in there," said Steve, smiling.

Onscreen, Clemson ducked into a big waterside loading shed (they were on the water) and when Steve showed up a moment later he pointed the barrel of the gun at the boy's head.

" _Wait, don't!"_ cried Steve, advancing with his hands held out. " _Don't!"_

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" shrieked Darcy as Clemson turned the gun on Steve - but he was out of bullets. In a flash, he dropped the gun, grabbed the boy with both hands, and threw him into the water. Then he took off running again.

"Come _on_ , please don't tell me. . ." moaned Pepper.

Steve raced to the water's edge, but the boy was treading water easily. " _Go get him!"_ he shouted. " _I can swim!"_

"There is a God in heaven," gasped Laura.

Clemson had by now managed to get a fair distance away, and he stopped at another point to summon a small submarine to the surface. He jumped inside, shut himself in, and started up. Steve, assured that the boy was in no more danger, ran to follow Clemson. The submarine was just going underwater when he caught up with it, and he dived into the water without hesitation and swam downward.

"You really don't give up," said Maria.

"I can swim too, you know," said Steve.

Clemson sat inside the cockpit, probably thinking his mission was finally complete, when Steve came sliding up alongside and punched through the side window. Water gushed into the chamber, and Clemson drew in a big breath just in time before Steve lifted the top of the cockpit. He grabbed the HYDRA man and hauled him upward through the water, tossing him up onto the landing stage and climbing up after him once he reached the surface.

"Damn, Cap, that was a good one!" said Sharon.

Clemson had just barely time to get his bearings before Steve was on him. He made some attempt to swing at Steve, but Steve was far too quick for that. He kicked Clemson over, sending the tube of serum flying. No one had any time to say "you should really do something about that" before Steve grabbed the man by the throat.

" _Who the hell are you?"_ he demanded.

" _The first of many,"_ said the man, speaking now with a distinct German accent. " _Cut off one head -"_ he stopped to dislodge something in his mouth. " _\- two more shall take its place. Hail HYDRA!"_ His mouth filled with foam even as Steve looked on, puzzled, and he choked and gurgled for a moment before becoming completely still. He was obviously quite dead.

"What -" began Wanda, pointing.

"Undoubtedly poison, concealed in the mouth," said Thor. "A way to keep him from spilling secrets to the enemy."

Onscreen, Steve stared down at his new body, as if just realizing it for the first time.


	7. The Star Spangled Man with a Plan!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Schmidt sells Hitler out, much to the team's delight, and Steve makes his stage debut.

**All rights belong to Marvel Studios.**

* * *

The scene changed, briefly showing a double line of soldiers marching stiffly down a corridor. " _The Fuhrer is not accustomed to being ignored, Herr Schmidt,"_ came a disembodied voice as the view began to shift to the right of the men and into another corridor where three uniformed men walked behind Schmidt ("Stickin' it to the boss, are we?" muttered Tony). " _He funds your research because you promised him weapons."_

"Uh-oh, Hitler's out of patience," said Sam sarcastically.

"Yeah, big surprise there," said Steve.

"Schneider, Roeder, and Hutter, I believe are their names," said the Vision as he looked up their faces in his memory banks.

" _You serve at his pleasure,"_ said another of the trio ("Is that what you think?" snorted Fury). " _He gave you this facility as a reward for your injuries."_

" _Why not call it what it is, exile?"_ snapped Schmidt. " _I no longer reflect his image of Aryan perfection."_

"I'll say you don't!" snorted Clint.

At this moment the man at the back of the line (Hutter) passed by a HYDRA banner and paused to look at it. Then he glanced aside at the HYDRA man standing across from it, whose uniform was so complete that not even his eyes were showing, before hurrying on to join the others looking decidedly spooked.

" _You think this is about appearances?"_ demanded the man walking next to Schmidt (Roeder, actually). " _Your HYDRA division has failed to deliver so much as a rifle in over a year."_

"A _rifle?!"_ scoffed Scott.

"Hey, it's just Hitler, what are you gonna expect?" said Natasha.

" _And we have learned from local intelligence -"_ ("Good to know the bad guys spy on each other too," said Bruce.) " _\- that you have mounted a full scale incursion into Norway."_

"Very productive incursion," said May mildly and truly.

" _The Fuhrer feels - how does he put it - that the Red Skull has been indulged long enough,"_ added Schneider.

Schmidt stopped walking and turned around to level a piercing stare at the three officials with their pin-bedazzled uniforms.

"Dun-da-duh, they're smoked!" said Cooper as soon as Schmidt's face was visible.

"Bake and toast 'em, fry and roast 'em," chanted Thor. Jane grinned up at him approvingly. "I knew you'd like that book," she said.

" _Gentlemen,"_ said Schmidt after what could only be described as a _very_ pregnant pause. " _You have come to see the results of our work, hm? Let me show you."_ And he smiled.

"Good thing you now have the Cube to smirk about," muttered Bucky.

Schmidt showed the military men into the room where the magic had happened (literally). " _Hitler speaks of a thousand year Reich, but he cannot feed his armies for a month,"_ he said contemptuously ("Cause he's funding you," snarked Darcy). " _His troops spill their blood across every field in Europe -"_ ( _Sokovia, perhaps?_ thought Steve with a jolt at his eyes slid toward Wanda, who nodded slightly.) " _\- but still he is no closer to achieving his goals."_ He yanked the cover off what looked like a very large gun sitting on a revolving base.

The military men had obviously had enough. " _And I suppose you still aim to win this war through magic?"_ asked Roeder with a mocking smile and a vague gesture.

"Don't underestimate magic," said Maria wryly. _Not after Loki_ and _Maximoff,_ she added mentally.

Wanda realized with a start that, in a roundabout way, the woman was _complimenting_ her. "Why, thank you," she said.

Fury's eye seemed to twinkle at her.

" _Science, but I understand your confusion,"_ Schmidt's tone was that of an indulgent professor with a dull student as he began pressing buttons and flipping switches while Dr. Zola looked on. " _Great power has always baffled primitive men."_

"All right, then!" chuckled T'Challa as Roeder and Schneider exchanged glances.

"He comin' at you, dawg!" drawled Rhodey.

"Back to praising himself," Peter noted.

" _HYDRA is assembling an arsenal to destroy my enemies in one stroke, wherever they are regardless of the forces they possess -"_ Schmidt snapped his fingers. " _All in a matter of hours."_

"But you reckon without Captain America!" grinned Thor.

" _Your enemies?"_ demanded Roeder suspiciously.

" _My weapons,"_ went on Schmidt as if the other hadn't spoken. " _contain enough destructive power to decimate every hostile capital on earth."_ He turned at last to look at the SS officials again. " _Quite simply, gentlemen, I have harnessed the power of the gods."_ And he strode off across the room to set up another part of the machine.

"Not quite," said a disgruntled Thor. "And an Infinity Stone is hardly a thing to be _harnessed_."

Roeder snorted and covered it up with a cough. " _Thank you, Herr Schmidt,"_ said Schneider.

" _For what?"_ asked Schmidt, barely glancing up.

" _For making it plain how obviously mad you are!"_ declared Schneider.

"He may be, but he can still do it," said Steve.

But Hutter had wandered over to a map and was peering down at his, his brow furrowing. His fingers traced all the red pins that had been stuck in various places. " _Berlin is on this map!"_ he cried, spinning around.

" _So it is,"_ said Schmidt coolly, still pressing buttons and flipping switches.

"Evil selling out evil - this is more like it!" said Darcy with a grin.

"That thing has a _lot_ of switches!" said Pepper at the same time.

The big gun swung round and pointed itself at Hutter, who was crying, " _You will be punished for your insolence! You will be brought before the Fuhrer himself!"_

"Yeah, right!" said Bruce.

Instead of a bullet, a streak of blue shot from the weapon and vaporized Hutter.

"Literally smoked!" said Betty to Cooper.

Schneider and Roeder started back and tried to run, but Schmidt simply aimed and shot again, hitting Schneider twice and killing him before turning on Roeder, who had tried to get out through the door but had found it locked against him. He howled as Schmidt's revolving weapon pointed itself at him before disappearing in a flash of blue energy.

"That didn't take long," said Vision placidly.

" _My apologies, Doctor,"_ said Schmidt just as placidly. " _but we both knew HYDRA could grow no further in Hitler's shadow. Hail HYDRA!"_

"Boo!" said Clint as Schmidt's men saluted with a resounding " _Hail HYDRA!"_

Doctor Zola watched, glasses gleaming. When Schmidt looked at him he straightened and shouted " _Hail HYDRA!"_ in a hurry.

"That was late!" said Bucky, quirking an eyebrow. "He never see blood before or something?"

Schmidt smiled and strode off. Zola appeared to be trying to pull himself together.

The next scene showed Steve sitting in a medical room having his blood drawn by a nurse. " _Think you got enough?"_ he asked as the woman looked over the sample.

" _Any hope of reproducing the program is not in your genetic code,"_ said Peggy Carter as Steve got up. " _Without Dr. Erskine it would take years."_

"But it did happen," muttered Tony bitterly, and Bucky gulped and shoved down the memory of the 1991 mission, and of Tony's ashen, shell-shocked face the instant before the first shot had been fired. Wanda felt a little sick; if this was what Tony had been confronted with, she couldn't help but feel a little less unkindly disposed toward him.

At least she hadn't And then looked up to see the man whose hand had snapped her mother's neck _standing across the room_.

" _He deserved more than this,"_ said onscreen Steve staring straight ahead.

"He certainly did," said the real Steve.

" _If it could work only once, he'd be proud it was you,"_ said Peggy, looking over his file.

"True that!" said Pepper.

Then Peggy looked up at Steve, red lips smiling, and the Steve on the couch bit his lip.

" _Colonel Phillips, my committee is demanding answers,"_ came the voice of Senator Brandt from the next room.

" _Great!"_ snapped the Colonel. " _How about we start with how a German spy got a ride to my secret installation in your car?"_

"Cause you got lousy security, is how," muttered Fury. "Walking into a secret lab in uniform, talking about the damn weather. . ."

Nobody denied the point.

" _What've we got here?"_ continued the Colonel, now addressing Howard Stark who was standing beside the HYDRA underwater vessel.

" _Speaking modestly, I'm the best mechanical engineer in this country,"_ said Howard (Pepper sneaked a look at Tony, who rolled his eyes). " _But I don't know what's inside this thing or how it works_ ("Howard Stark doesn't know how something works?" quipped Steve) _. We're not even close to this technology."_

" _Then who is?"_ demanded the senator.

" _HYDRA. I'm sure you've been reading our briefings,"_ said Phillips.

"HYDRA was always ahead of everything," said Sharon.

The senator turned to glare at Phillips. " _I am on a number of committees, Colonel,"_ he said.

"Yeah, yeah, you're a busy man, we got it," said Scott.

" _HYDRA is a Nazi deep science division,"_ said Peggy entering the room with Steve behind her. ("That's what the _they_ thought!" said Darcy with relish.) " _It's led by Johann Schmidt. But he has much bigger ambitions."_

"No kidding," said Rhodey.

" _HYDRA's practically a cult,"_ added Phillips. " _They worship Schmidt, they think he's invincible."_

"Well, he had the serum _and_ the Cube, so fair point," said Natasha with a shrug.

" _So what are you going to do about it?"_ asked the Senator.

" _I spoke to the President this morning,"_ said the Colonel. " _As of today the SSR is being re-tasked."_

" _Colonel?"_ inquired Peggy as Phillips turned to her.

" _We are taking the fight to HYDRA._ ("Woohoo!" said Maria) _Pack your bags, Agent Carter. You too, Stark. We're flying to London tonight."_

" _Sir,"_ said Steve, and Phillips paused to listen to him. " _If you're going after Schmidt, I want in."_

"Oh, no, no, no!" muttered the real Steve, putting his head down to hide a blush.

" _You're an experiment, you're going to Alamo,"_ said Phillips.

" _The serum worked,"_ protested Steve.

"It certainly did," said T'Challa.

" _I asked for an army and all I got was you,"_ said the Colonel. " _You are not enough."_

"Okay, but did you see what the one guy could do?" asked Sam as Phillips turned and walked away.

"Well, he learned better," said Fury. "We wouldn't be watching this otherwise."

Then Senator Brandt came up to Steve. " _With all due respect to the Colonel,"_ he said. " _I think we may be missing the point. I've seen you in action, Steve - more importantly, the country's seen it. Paper!"_ He snapped his fingers, and someone brought him a newspaper. " _This one line's been around the block since your picture hit the newsstands."_ The newspaper headline, predictably, ran _Nazis in New York: Mystery Man Saves Child_. " _You don't take a soldier, a symbol, like that and hide him in a lab. Son,"_ and here the senator put his hand on Steve's shoulder and began to walk with him. " _do you want to serve your country on the most important battlefield of the war?"_

"Oh, no," groaned the real Steve.

"Oh, _yes!"_ grinned Sharon, rubbing her hands eagerly.

" _Sir,"_ said the Steve onscreen. " _That's all I want."_

"What is it with you volunteering for things _before_ you know what you're signing up for?" asked Darcy of Steve.

"Yeah, man, what's that about?" asked Bucky. The real Steve just sighed.

" _Then congratulations,"_ said Senator Brandt shaking Steve's hand. " _You just got promoted."_

Onscreen, Steve smiled.

And then Steve was blowing out his breath, obviously wearing something blue. " _I don't know if I can do this,"_ he said nervously.

"Oh my God!" Pepper's eyes were shining. "Is this what I think it is?"

" _Nothing to it,"_ said the plump attendant. " _Sell a few bonds, bonds buy bullets, bullets kill Nazis. Bing bang boom. You're an American hero."_

"Why is this my life?" whimpered the real Steve, and Wanda noticed most of the other viewers were dissolving into giggles.

"What's so funny?" asked Thor.

"Just you wait, Thor!" said Clint.

" _Just not how I pictured getting there,"_ said the Steve onscreen while music began playing from somewhere off to the side. A blonde, obviously costumed girl was peeping impatiently at him from a gap between two stage curtains.

" _Senator's got a lot of pull up on the hill,"_ said the attendant knowledgeably. " _You play ball with us, you'll be leading your own platoon in no time. Take the shield."_

"That's right, take the shield, Cap!" said Bucky merrily.

"Would you _shut your pie-hole?_ " growled the real Steve.

Steve pulled a blue balaclava-like hood with a big embroidered white "A" over his head, picked up a painted tin shield, and was pushed onstage.

Here they all got a good look at Steve. He was wearing the old uniform they were most of them familiar with, but there was no denying it looked quite ridiculous on stage surrounded by dancing women in red, white, and blue uniforms who sang along with the bouncing rhythm of the music:

" _Who's strong and brave, here to save the American way?"_

Steve lifted the shield and began obviously reading aloud from the back of it. " _Not all of us can storm a beach or drive a tank, but there's still a way all of us can fight."_

And the women sang again:

" _Who vows to fight like a man for what's right, night and day?"_

Steve read more from the back of the shield, which had script notes stuck all over the back:

" _Series E Events Bonds - each one you buy is a bullet in the barrel of your best guy's gun."_

The women danced and sang on:

" _Who will campaign door-to-door for America,_

_Carry the flag shore to shore for America. . ."_

Steve posed for a photograph with a woman and her howling baby, who took the child from him and hurried off before Senator Brandt came up for his turn.

" _From Hoboken to Spokane,_

_The Star Spangled Man with a Plan!"_

T'Challa was laughing. Tony was laughing. Vision was laughing. Bucky and Thor were roaring. Everyone but Steve was laughing - deep, gut-busting, fall-off-your-seat, get-up-off-the-couch-and-stomp laughs. Even Fury was hooting. They couldn't help it, and they didn't want to.

Steve, meanwhile, had put his head in his hands and was moaning, "Would someone please shoot me now?!"

And now the Steve onscreen was on the set of a film, marching a set of costumed "soldiers" toward a camera. " _Cut!"_ shouted the director. " _Guys, don't look_ at _the camera!"_

And Steve was on another stage, the women dancing around him again. " _. . .each one you buy is a bullet in the barrel of your best guy's gun,"_ he said without looking at the shield while the women sang:

" _We can't ignore there's a threat and a war we must win,_

 _Who'll hang a noose on the goose-stepping goons from Berlin?_ "

"Are you on tour?!" gasped May as different stages and adjusted dance routines flashed across the screen.

Steve just sighed again while the song played on.

" _Who will redeem, head the call for America,_

_Who'll rise or fall, give his all for America,_

_Who's here to prove that we can?"_

And this time the Avengers managed to join in for the line they knew was coming:

" _The Star Spangled Man with a Plan!"_

Senator Brandt smiled approvingly from the audience.

" _And we all know this is about trying to win the war,"_ recited Steve. " _And we can't do that without bullets and bandages, tanks and tents."_

A man dressed up as Adolf Hitler snaked his way along behind the row of dancers as Steve spoke, scowling menacingly, his fake gun gleaming in the stage lights.

" _And that's where you come in. Every bond you buy will help protect someone you love."_

Two children in the audience began pointing and shouting out as the Hitler actor pointed his gun at the head of one of the smiling women. Then, when he burst through the line, Steve swung his fist about a foot from the man's head, and he fell flat on his back to cheers from the audience.

The names Buffalo, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Chicago flashed across the screen as Steve fake-punched 'Hitler' onstage and waved to the audience.

" _Stalwart and steady and true,_

_(see how this guy can shoot, we tell ya, there's no substitute!)_

_Forceful and ready to defend the Red, White, and Blue!"_

Captain America comics were being sold by the dozens around the country ("I've got one of those!" said Peter excitedly), and Steve was starring in more films. He watched himself onscreen in a movie theater, his lips quirking.

" _Who'll give the Axis the sack, and is smart as a fox?_

_(far as an eagle will soar)_

_Who's making Adolph afraid to step out of his box?_

_(He knows what we're fighting for!)"_

And there were still more stage performances and photos - bloody hell, what a tour that must have been! - and now signed autographs for children as he walked offstage.

" _Who waked the giant that napped in America?_

_We know it's no-one but Captain America,_

_Who'll finish what they began?_

_Who'll kick the Krauts to Japan?_

_The Star Spangled Man with a Plan!"_

" _How many of you are ready to help me sock old Adolf on the jaw?"_ said Steve into a microphone. He was greeted with dead silence from the audience of uniformed men sitting on the ground.

Instantly all the gaiety bled from the room. Steve was speaking to the _soldiers_ \- the men who had enlisted and had seen real combat. They weren't having any of it, as anyone could see.

"Aw, hell," said Scott.

Onstage, Steve blinked. " _Okay,"_ he said. " _Uh. . .I need a volunteer!"_

" _I've already volunteered, how do you think I got here?"_ demanded one of the men, and his comrades laughed derisively. The words _Italy, 1943: Five Miles from the Front_ had been shown on the screen

" _Bring back the girls!"_ somebody shouted.

Steve looked from the men to the side of the stage in obvious panic. " _I think they only know the one song,"_ he stuttered. " _but, um, let me -"_ he shook his head. " _I'll see what I can do."_

Cries of " _You do that, sweetheart!"_ and " _Nice boots, Tinkerbell!"_ accompanied by snorts and laughter rang from the audience.

" _C'mon, guys,"_ pleaded Steve. " _We're all on the same team here."_ But his voice was flat.

"Yeah, they're just the ones gettin' their butts kicked," sighed Sam.

" _Hey, Captain!"_ One of the men jumped up, turned around, and pulled his pants down a few inches. " _Sign this!"_

"I so did not need to see all that," huffed Darcy.

And then somebody else threw something at Steve. He warded it off with the shield, but more projectiles came flying toward him while the men cheered and applauded.

"Oh, shit," said Tony, and he actually looked and sounded quite sympathetic for once.

Onscreen Steve walked dejectedly offstage, and the girls started filing back onstage as requested. " _Don't worry about it,"_ said one of the helpers to Steve as the music began to play. " _They'll warm up to you, no worries."_

"Yeah, eventually," said Bucky.

But onscreen Steve just tramped off miserably down the stairs without a word.


	8. Into the Jaws of the Enemy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Star Spangled Man makes his first plan.

**All rights belong to Marvel Studios.**

* * *

The mood in the room was quite somber. Everyone was uncomfortably aware of how Steve must have felt - on stage, in tights, being made fun of by the soldiers who were exactly where and what he had always wanted to be.

Life was a _bitch._

The scene playing at the moment only served to further bear this out. It was raining, as if to emphasize the gloom. Steve was drawing idly, a picture of a monkey with a long tail balancing on a unicycle, with a shield on its arm and an umbrella over its head. The sweater it was wearing had a big star on its chest.

" _Hullo, Steve,"_ said Peggy Carter's voice from behind him.

Steve looked up in surprise. " _Hi,"_ he said. " _What are you doing here?"_

" _Officially, I'm not here at all,"_ said Peggy sitting down next to him ("Okay, then!" murmured Betty, thinking vaguely of her father again). " _That was quite a performance."_

Steve grimaced. " _Yeah, uh . . . had to improvise a little bit."_ ("Oh, just a little," said Bucky.) " _The crowds I'm used to are usually a little more, uh . . . twelve."_

" _I understand you're America's new Hope,"_ said Peggy, looking at him keenly.

"To be an icon of hope during a war is no bad thing," Thor frowned.

"Yeah, but for someone that exceptionally fast and strong it _is_ a waste," said May before the real Steve could speak.

" _Bond sales take a ten percent bump in every state I visit,"_ said onscreen Steve, his voice flat again.

" _That Senator Brandt I hear?"_ asked Peggy.

"Sure sounds like it!" said Laura.

" _At least he's got me doing this,"_ said Steve, looking back up at her. " _Phillips would have had me stuck in a lab."_

"Another noble waste," said Scott.

" _And these are your only two options?"_ demanded Peggy, glancing at his sketch. " _A lab rat or a dancing monkey?_ ("Well, there's a way of putting it!" said Sam.) _You were meant for more than this, you know."_

"Aww!" said Darcy. Steve shot her a dirty look.

Steve-onscreen was silent, but his lip twisted.

" _What?"_ asked Peggy.

" _You know, for the longest time I dreamed about - coming overseas and being on the front lines, serving my country,"_ Steve gazed at the rain. " _Finally got everything I wanted. And I'm wearin' tights."_

"Then you hardly 'got everything you wanted,' if you wanted to fight," said Vision.

"Fair point," said the real Steve.

Just then a medical truck pulled up nearby, honking frantically, and a small cluster of men raced up to it. They opened the doors and brought out a man on a stretcher.

" _They look like they've been through hell,"_ said onscreen Steve as he and Peggy looked on.

" _These men more than most,"_ said Peggy, once again watching him closely. After a short pause she spoke again. " _Schmidt sent out a force to Azzano. Two hundred men went up against him, and less than fifty returned. Your audience contained what was left of the 107th."_

"Ho boy!" said Bucky. "I can guess where this is headed."

"You bet!" said Fury.

" _The rest were killed or captured,"_ Peggy went on, but stopped at the dawning horror on Steve's face.

" _The 107th?"_ he asked.

"Here we go!" said Bruce.

" _What?"_ asked Peggy.

" _C'mon!"_ shouted Steve, and he ran for the base.

"Dibs on popcorn!" Bucky sat forward eagerly. The real Steve just sighed.

" _Colonel Phillips!"_ called onscreen Steve as he strode up to him. Colonel Phillips was sitting at a table with a pen and several condolence letters.

" _Well, if it isn't the Star Spangled Man with a Plan,"_ he drawled as Steve came running up. " _What is your plan today?"_

"To hang a noose on the goose-steppin'-" began Clint.

"SHUT YOUR PIE-HOLE," said the real Steve, the catchy song obviously still a very sore point.

" _I need the casualty list form Azzano,"_ said onscreen Steve.

" _You don't get to give me orders, son,"_ said Phillips immovably.

"Good luck widdat," said Bucky. The real Steve drew breath to protest, and then left it alone.

" _I just need one name,"_ said Steve. " _Sergeant James Barnes from the 107th."_

"You seriously started your whole vigilante career for me?" asked Bucky. "I mean, thanks and everything, but -"

Phillips pointed his pen at Peggy, who was standing beside Steve. " _You and I are going to have a conversation that you won't enjoy."_

" _Please tell me he's alive, sir,"_ pleaded Steve. " _B-A-R-"_

" _I can spell,"_ snapped the Colonel.

"Thank God for small favors!" said Bruce.

There was a brief moment of tense silence. Then the Colonel got up from his table. " _I have signed more of these condolence letters today than I would care to count,"_ he said. " _But the name does sound familiar."_ He turned back to Steve. " _I'm sorry."_

" _What about the others?"_ asked Steve. " _Are you planning a rescue mission?"_

" _Yes, it's called winning a war!"_ said the Colonel.

"Not good enough!" said Sharon, rolling her eyes over at her long-distance boyfriend.

" _But if you know where they are, why not at least send -"_

" _They're thirty miles behind the lines,"_ Phillips broke in, striding past Steve to point out a large marked map. " _through some of the most heavily fortified territory in Europe. We'd lose more men than we'd save. But I don't expect you do understand that because you're a chorus girl."_

"But he doesn't sing!" said Thor; then he turned to Steve. "Or do you?"

"No, no, no!" said the real Steve, shaking his head emphatically.

"Yeppers!" said Bucky at the same time.

Onscreen, Steve's face hardened. " _I think I understand just fine,"_ he said.

"Ruh-ro," said Cooper.

" _Well then, understand it somewhere else,"_ said Colonel Phillips, and he walked past Steve to go back to signing the mound of condolence letters. " _Now if I read the posters correctly, you've got some place to be in thirty minutes."_

Steve was staring closely at the map. " _Yes, sir, I do!"_ he said. Peggy looked at him expectantly.

" _If you have something to say,"_ called Phillips to her. " _Right now is the perfect time to keep it to yourself."_

"Uh-oh!" said Sharon.

But Peggy did keep it to herself. She glanced back only briefly before slipping off after Steve.

Steve had gone backstage, and was throwing one of the army costumes into a bag. Peggy burst in on him as he was packing. " _What do you plan to do, walk to Austria?"_ she demanded.

" _If that's what it takes,"_ answered Steve.

" _You heard the Colonel, your friend is most likely dead,"_ said Peggy.

" _You don't know that,"_ snapped Steve.

"Okay, you were right, but -" began Bucky.

" _Even so, he's devising a strategy,"_ Peggy protested. " _If he detects -"_

" _By the time he's done that, it could be too late!"_ barked Steve, and he put on a coat and strode back out into the rain. Peggy followed him.

" _Steve!"_ she called as she went. When she reached him he was throwing his bag into an army vehicle. " _You told me you thought I was meant for more than this,"_ he said, turning to face her. " _Did you mean that?"_

Peggy stared into his face. " _Every word."_

" _Than you've got to let me go,"_ said Steve, climbing into the driver's seat. Peggy stopped him. " _I can do more than that,"_ she said.

"What did she do?" asked Thor. Sharon smiled.

Backstage, one of the women reached for her helmet only to find it missing. " _Where's my helmet?"_ she asked.

" _Has anyone seen Rogers?"_ a voice called.

"You never showed for that one, did ya?" asked Rhodey with a grin.

"Nope!" said Steve.

The next shot briefly showed a large plane flying through the night sky. Inside, Peggy had a map spread on her knee, and Steve was sitting across from her, wearing his costume under a thick coat and a blue stage helmet with a pair of goggles. " _The HYDRA camp is in Kreischberg,"_ she said. " _tucked between these two mountain ranges. It's a factory of some kind."_

"Cube weapons production," said Bucky with a nod. The real Steve sent Fury a look.

" _We should be able to drop you around the doorstep,"_ said Howard Stark from the pilot's chair. Tony's eyebrows went up. _So Dad helped Rogers actually get Barnes out of there. Ironic._

" _Just get me as close as you can,"_ said Steve. " _You know, you two are going to be in a lot of trouble when you land."_

"Agent Carter will be in a lot of trouble when they land," corrected T'Challa in amusement.

" _And you won't?"_ asked Peggy incredulously.

" _Where I'm going, if anybody yells at me I can just shoot 'em,"_ Steve pointed out.

"Got a gun?" asked Tony. The real Steve blinked.

" _They will undoubtedly shoot back,"_ said Peggy.

" _Well, let's hope it's good for something!"_ said Steve, knocking the shield prop he had carried away with his elbow.

"Captain, that is a _stage prop_ ," protested Vision.

"And?" said Steve.

" _Agent Carter!"_ called Howard. " _If we're not in too much of a hurry, I thought we might stop off in Loussern for a little late-night fondue."_

Steve looked at Peggy. Peggy seemed uneasy.

"Uh-oh, jealous Steve!" said Laura.

"Just for the record, I didn't know what fondue was," protested Steve. "I thought . . .never mind."

Wanda stifled a giggle.

" _Stark is the best civilian pilot I've ever seen,"_ said Peggy. " _He's mad enough to brave this airspace. We're lucky to have him."_

" _So are you two -"_ Steve gestured, and Peggy tilted her head. " _\- do you - fondue?"_

The real Steve groaned, and Bucky's mouth fell open.

"Oh, my God, you thought 'fondue' meant sex?!" said Pepper, joining in the general laughter.

"What _is_ 'fondue'?" asked T'Challa.

"Melted cheese on bread, or melted chocolate and fruit!" said Wanda cheerfully (she had discovered that she loved fresh fruit). "It is not _sex_ , your Highness."

Instead of answering him, Peggy handed Steve a thing that looked a bit like a Walkman. " _This is your transponder,"_ she said. " _Activate it when you're ready and the signal will lead us straight to you."_

"You know, you could have denied it," said Sharon to the screen.

Onscreen Steve took the transponder. " _Are you sure this thing works?"_ he shouted at Stark.

" _Tested more than you, pal,"_ said Howard.

"Everything is," said Clint

And that was when the shooting began.

"Oh, crikey!" said Peter with a jump.

"Getting suddenly shot at is something you get used to when you hang with this crowd long enough," said Steve.

May eyed her nephew, and smiled quietly.

" _Get back here!"_ shouted Peggy, jumping up after him. " _We're taking you all the way in!"_

"Nice try," said Sharon.

But Steve had already flung open the door. " _As soon as I leave, turn this thing around and get the hell out of here!"_ he shouted back.

" _You can't give me orders!"_ Peggy protested.

Bucky suddenly had an idea that Peggy and Steve could almost never have had a successful _marriage._ Wanda, picking up on it, was inclined to agree.

" _The hell I can't!"_ retorted Steve, turning to look up at her as he crouched, ready to jump. " _I'm a captain!"_

His grin flashed in the dim light as he pulled down his goggles and threw himself out of the plane.

"Go get 'em, Cap!" said Maria.

Peggy leaned forward with wide eyes, staring after Steve as anxiously as she had when he'd been strapped to Dr. Erskine's machine, while Howard steered the plane.

In the HYDRA lab, a number of men were hard at work, bustling back and forth. " _As you can see,"_ said Dr. Zola to Schmidt as the two inspected their labor. " _production of the_ Valkyrie _is progressing on schedule, even with components of this size."_ He smiled proudly up at Schmidt.

But Schmidt said, " _Increased the output by sixty percent and see to it our other facilities do the same."_

"Sixty percent?! What's the big rush?" wondered Cooper.

Zola paused, and looked dismayed. " _But these prisoners,"_ he hesitated. " _I'm not sure they have the strength -"_

" _Then use up what strength they have left, Doctor,"_ said Schmidt. " _There are always more workers."_ And he walked off, leaving Zola looking rather flummoxed.

"Go to hell," muttered Darcy.

"He did!" said Bruce. Darcy brightened.

" _Not now!"_ snapped Zola as somebody with a clipboard walked up to him.

"Aw, did you get your feewings huwt?" Tony morphed into baby talk, sending most of the others into giggles. Steve and Bucky even joined in, and Steve even dared to look over at his former friend. Tony met his eyes, and his lips twitched before he looked away.

Briefly the viewers got a more inclusive glimpse of the lab, all aglow with Cube energy, and then they were treated to a view of the cells. A line of men were being marched by a HYDRA officer into one of them, and the hindmost of them, a big man with a hat, was being unnecessarily prodded and shoved. When he and his fellows were pushed into the cell, he turned back to the HYDRA man, letting the viewers get a good look at his face. " _You know, Fritz,"_ he said. " _One of these days I'm going to have a stick of my own."_

"Dum Dum Dugan!" said Laura.

"Yup," said Steve.

The HYDRA man, whose uniform only left his mouth and nose showing, merely shut the door and marched off.

"Well, so much for that!" said Clint.

The next scene was of a winter-bare forest, and Steve creeping through it to get a look at the facility. It was a big one, with a high fence all around it and tanks behind the fence and moving surveillance lights.

Steve ducked down behind a tree as a line of military humvees came rolling past. Then as the last one passed him he ran up behind it, pushing back the tarp and jumping inside. Once he landed, he looked up and saw two uniformed HYDRA officers were sitting and staring at him.

"Just the two?" said Rhodey.

" _Fellas,"_ said Steve jovially.

The two men leaped at him with loud yells.

"You're supposed to say hello, guys!" said Natasha smirking.

The humvee rolled along echoing with thumps and muffled shouts. After a few seconds two men came flying out of the back of the humvee just as it rolled through the gate in the fence and up to the HYDRA facility.

"That looked easy," said Maria.

"It was easy," said Steve.

The HYDRA humvees each parked at different points to unload, armed men directing them and bustling here and there. An armed man lifted the tarp at the back of one of the humvees and was greeted with a sight of the shield prop. He looked at it for a moment before Steve knocked him out with it.

"Well who knew, the thing _is_ good for something!" said onscreen Steve to Vision.

Vision still looked unconvinced.

Steve jumped out of the humvee and ran up between rows of other HYDRA vehicles, his shield on his back.

"That thing is really obvious," said Bucky. "And aren't you going to cover your face?"

"Oh, that doesn't matter, 'cause I'm just sli-i-ick," drawled Steve.

"Uh-huh," said Bucky.

Onscreen Steve was really making remarkable progress without being seen. He even managed to climb up on top of one of the smaller buildings (supply houses, perhaps) and jog right up to the big lab.

Then, inside the lab, a HYDRA man answered a tap at the door he was guarding. When he opened the door, it was slammed on his head and a fist punched him out.

"Kaboom!" said Peter.

Steve hauled the unconscious man aside and slipped through the door. He was now inside the HYDRA weapons lab.

"Fun begins now, guys," said the Steve on the couch as his onscreen self took a look around. He slipped cautiously around the big machines, ducking for cover. Then he came up on a machine that seemed to be holding little cartridges of Cube energy (how on earth had Zola managed to store it?). He took one and shoved it in his pocket.

"Score!" cheered Clint.

Then, down in the prisoners' cells, the men looked up in surprise to see the guard passing just above them suddenly keel over. Steve leaned over his body and began fishing up his keys.

" _Who're you supposed to be?"_ asked one of the men, curiously. He was a big, broad-shouldered fellow whose skin gleamed cocoa brown in the dim light. ("Gabe Jones," said Steve wistfully.)

" _Um,"_ the intruder paused, glancing over his shoulder.

"The Star Spangled -" began Thor.

" _Captain America,"_ finished onscreen Steve. His real life counterpart gave the god of thunder a dirty look.

" _Ah, beg your pardon?"_ asked another of the men, blinking.

"What, you haven't seen him perform?" asked Tony.

A moment later, Steve was down among the cells, and he unlocked them all one by one. As Dum Dum Dugan came out of his cell, he caught sight of another freed prisoner with distinctly Asian features. " _What, are we taking everybody?"_ he asked.

"Honestly?!" groaned Pepper.

" _I'm from Fresno, Ace,"_ said the man sourly. ("Jim Morita," said Steve.)

" _Is there anybody else?"_ asked Steve. " _I'm looking for a Sergeant James Barnes."_

"Aw, I love you too," said Bucky.

"Look, are you happy to have got out of there or what?" demanded Steve.

" _There's an isolation ward in the factory, but no one's ever come back from it,"_ said Jim Morita.

("Hey," Bucky was saying. "I'm happy for the reprieve.")

" _Right,"_ said onscreen Steve. " _The treeline is northwest, eighty yards past the gate. Get out fast and give 'em hell. I'll meet you guys in the clearing with anybody else I find."_

"Look who's giving orders like a pro," said Maria.

" _Wait,"_ said Gabe Jones. " _You know what you're doing?"_

"Nope!" said Sam.

"Hey!" protested the real Steve.

" _Yeah,"_ said onscreen Steve, pausing. " _I've knocked out Adolf Hitler over two hundred times."_

"And they don't even get the joke!" said Bucky.

And Steve jogged off down the hall, leaving all the prisoners behind and staring at each other.

"Always wondered how they did this part," said the Steve on the couch, leaning forward to look.

Next moment the men were bursting out of the facility, shouting, knocking down any guards who got in their way. They were shot at, but when something like fifty men come out of one door all at once determined to give you hell, there's not much that half a score of armed men can do even with Tesseract-powered guns.

"Yeah, all right!" Sam pumped his fist in the air.

"They're givin' 'em hell, Cap!" said Fury.

"That's our Commandos!" said the real Steve proudly.

" _Your_ Commandos," Bucky corrected.

Dum Dum Dugan climbed up onto one of the tanks, while Jim Morita and another man (Jacques Dernier, according to Steve) managed to knock out one of the HYDRA officers. The man picked up the gun, which was glowing blue, and looked over it.

" _You know how to use that thing?"_ asked Jim.

The man pulled the trigger, and a blast of energy went shooting out, the recoil making him reel. A tank some yards away burst into flames.

"Damn!" blinked Bruce, adjusting his glasses.

Jacques gaped in amazement.

" _Okay,"_ said Jim, trying to look as though he hadn't seen anything extraordinary.

"I guess that's a yes!" said Jane.

Up in a control room, Schmidt glimpsed the action on one of many screens. " _What is happening?"_ he asked.

"What's it look like?" asked Bruce.

Schmidt pressed a large red button, which sent an alarm blaring throughout the facility. Beside him, Zola stood up, looking apprehensive.

Inside the tank, Gabe had climbed in beside Dugan.

" _Hey!"_ Dugan greeted him. " _Not exactly a Buick."_

Gabe stared around at all the controls, which were labeled in German. " _That one, Zundung,"_ he said, pointing.

"He knows German?" asked Rhodey.

" _Zundung?"_ questioned Dugan, hitting the button.

"He knows German!" said Rhodey.

The tank started up, the gun on top glowing blue as one more man jumped up on top of it (Falsworth by name), shouting, " _Get this thing going, Dugan!"_

" _Didn't know you spoke German,"_ said Dugan conversationally as he got the tank going.

" _Three semesters at Howard's,"_ said Gabe with a grin. " _Switched to French - girls much cuter!"_

"So I guess he spoke French, too?" asked Betty.

" _Didn't ask for the resume,"_ said Dugan.

"But it's impressive!" said Darcy.

The tank began rolling, and Falsworth fired the gun, sending any opponents up in flames with a single blast.

" _Wahoo!"_ cheered Dugan as he steered.

"That looks wicked cool," said Scott enviously.

"Really something for the '40s, ain't it?" said Steve.

All over the facility there was chaos. Schmidt watched from his control room, and zeroed one of his cameras in on a lone figure with a colorful shield. He seemed to be scrutinizing the fighting style, watching as the man kicked, punched and shield-knocked his way through a dozen men.

"So that's how he found me," said Steve.

Schmidt then began moving around the control room, flipping switches. Timers started counting down all over the room. Zola started up in horror. " _No, no!"_ he cried. " _What are you doing?!"_

"Lightin' it up," said Tony.

" _Our forces are outmatched,"_ said Schmidt, pointing. Zola bent to look at the screen. Then he turned and ran, and Schmidt continued flipping switches.

Steve burst through a door, knocking down the man on the other side of it, and looked around to find that the lab was nearly empty of people.

"I'd swear you were about to get blown up if I didn't know better," said Sam. Steve shrugged.

Outside, the freed Allied prisoners were still on the attack. They picked up weapons from fallen HYDRA soldiers and shot with them.

Schmidt went to what must have been the central machine and and picked up the Tesseract with the metal thing while the timer counted down - there were now less than three minutes left.

Zola was in another room, shoving papers and designs into a bag. He snatched it up and hurried out, leaving a large map on the wall as he left. He came out into the hallway at the same moment as Steve appeared in it, and the two got a good look at each other.

"Hi, Zola," said Natasha.

Zola turned and ran away, and Steve jogged down the hall after him, stopping by an open doorway at the sound of a groan from inside, followed by someone mumbling incoherently.

"It isn't!" gasped Thor.

"It is!" said Bruce.

Steve ran into the room. There, lying strapped to a machine that looked like it was used more brutal experiments than for mere torture, was _Bucky._


	9. Captain America

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve returns from his mission, and the SSR gets to work. The Avengers find new ways to embarrass their former captain.

**All rights belong to Marvel Studios.**

* * *

They'd known for a fact that Bucky was alive (he _was_ sitting next to them), but the moment was no less riveting for that. Bucky himself was watching with a strange look on his face, and Wanda caught a whiff of bitterness on him - _maybe it would've been better if they'd killed me_ \- followed by grim recollections of horrible things suffered (and, afterwards, horrible things done).

Tony, meanwhile, was in conflict. He had once genuinely liked Steve, and had in theory liked what he'd heard of Bucky ( _Connie and Bonnie? My kind of a guy!_ ). He was also nauseatingly aware of Bucky as HYDRA's effectual drone and the (unwitting or no) killer of his mother (and yes, his father too). He wanted to wring Bucky's neck and pour him cocoa and cheer and throw up all at once. It was all making Wanda _very_ uncomfortable.

" _Bucky,"_ said the Steve onscreen, bending over his friend. Bucky's eyes were open and vacant. " _Oh my God,"_ Steve groaned, hastily tearing off the straps. " _It's me,"_ he said, bending over Bucky again. " _It's Steve."_

"Good to see ya," said the real Bucky.

Onscreen Bucky's eyes turned toward Steve's face, and he smiled. " _Steve,"_ he croaked.

The real Bucky smugly observed most of the women quietly going into full mother-mode.

" _C'mon,"_ said onscreen Steve, pulling Bucky to his feet and supporting him. " _I thought you were_ dead _."_

"Well, he's not," said Thor.

" _I thought you were smaller,"_ said Bucky, looking over his friend.

"I used to be," conceded the real Steve.

A _bang_ from another part of the building made Steve turn his head, and when he did, he caught sight of the map that Zola had left behind. It was marked in six places.

"Other bases?" asked Bruce.

"Yeah," said Steve.

His onscreen counterpart took a good long minute to study the map. Then, " _C'mon!"_ he said to Bucky, and hurried out of the room with him.

" _What happened to you?"_ panted Bucky as they went.

"Pain," said the real Steve.

" _I joined the army,"_ said onscreen Steve.

"That and more," said the real Bucky.

Outside, Dugan blasted through the fence surrounding the facility ("Hurrah!" cheered Thor).

" _Did it hurt?"_ asked Bucky.

"Uh-huh!" said the real Steve.

" _A little,"_ said onscreen Steve.

" _Is it permanent?"_ asked Bucky, who was just letting go of Steve and walking on his own.

" _So far!"_ said Steve.

"You're remarkably lucid for having just been subjected to HYDRA experiments," said Ian, surprising everyone because he hadn't spoken before.

"Uh, yeah, I guess," said Bucky. "But they'd actually started enhancing me, so I was okay once I got my balance."

Having blasted through the gate, the Allied men charged through with weapons blazing. Inside the lab, the timer was counting down - three, two, one -

"Oh, shit," said Scott.

And the first of the machines went up in a burst of fire, followed by another, and another, and another.

Thor flinched. Wanda tried hard not to remember the vision she'd inflicted on him, and the dreams of fire and destruction he'd occasionally had since then.

Up on one of the metal ledges that overlooked the lab, Steve and Bucky ran up to the railing, looked over, and started back as the latest explosion rocked the floor. They went tearing up a set of stairs.

"Again, if we didn't know better. . ." said Bruce.

Just as Bucky and Steve passed by a bridge which spanned the length of the room, a familiar voice rang out from the other side: " _Captain America!"_

"Hi," said Steve.

Onscreen, Bucky and Steve stopped and turned to look.

" _How exciting!"_ continued Schmidt from the other end of the bridge, where he stood with Zola ("Hey, you each got your trusty sidekick!" said Pepper). " _I am a great fan of your films!"_

"Another Captain America fan!" said T'Challa.

"Ha ha ha," snorted the real Steve.

Onscreen Steve and Schmidt began to approach one another, walking slowly across the bridge.

" _So Dr. Erskine managed it after all,"_ said Schmidt, looking Steve over ("What'd ya expect?" snorted Clint). " _Not exactly an improvement_ ("Oh, you're just jealous!" said Tony) _, but still,"_ he shrugged. " _Impressive."_

Steve swung his shield straight into Schmidt's face, making him reel back a pace or two. He straightened, pulling at his face, or mask ("Ugh!" said Vision with a delicate shudder).

" _You've got no idea,"_ growled Steve.

Schmidt turned to him, his mask askew ("Ew!" said Cooper). " _Haven't I?"_ he snarled, and he threw a punch at Steve's head. Steve held up his shield just in time, though the metal was severely dented.

"Pretty good for a stage prop," smirked the real Steve. "At times I kinda miss the thing."

T'Challa raised his eyebrows.

"Pure nostalgia, your Highness," said Steve hastily.

Schmidt took a step back, pulled a pistol from his pocket, and dealt Steve a blow that sent him flying till he landed on his back. The blow, however, knocked the pistol out of his hand where it bounced away from him. Then he advanced, the mask pooling around his right eye.

"Okay, that is disgusting," said Rhodey.

Still on his back, Steve kicked Schmidt with both feet, which sent him flying even further.

"Booyah!" said Sam.

Zola sprang forward and pulled on a lever. The bridge split in the middle and each side folded backward, so that the two antagonists were moved away from each other with a fiery chasm in between them.

"Aw, shucks," said Bucky.

"Uh, Buck, no one says that anymore," said Steve.

"I say it," said Bucky.

The real Steve was about to reply, but was interrupted by Schmidt, who called to onscreen Steve, " _No matter what lies Erskine told you - you see, I was his greatest success!"_

"Might wanna look away if you're squeamish," said Steve as Schmidt reached for the underside of his chin.

Wanda had seen enough blood and gore in her short life to believe that she wasn't squeamish (this belief had been somewhat shaken by having watched _The Shining_ at Clint's behest), so she didn't look away. She instantly began to regret this as Schmidt gripped the flesh of his face and began _peeling_.

Fury visibly grimaced. "Christ," he muttered.

"Oi!" protested Wanda.

"Shi-it!" squawked Peter, recoiling. His aunt did not bother reprimanding him.

"Ew, ew, ew, ew!" wailed Jane.

"Not the eyes, not the - oh, come on!" said Tony as the human mask came up over the eyes. The ear popped off, making Wanda cringe.

"Forgot how disgusting this part was," said the real Bucky.

And then there it was, a face almost unrecognizable as human, with bone-tight skin and deathly-sunken features. The skin was almost as red as Vision's, and it gleamed in the light of the fires below because there was no hair.

"And I thought the pictures were bad," grumbled Maria.

" _You don't have one of those, do you?"_ asked onscreen Bucky, clearly traumatized.

"Nope," said the real Steve.

"Thank God," said the real Bucky.

" _You are deluded, Captain,"_ said Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull. " _You pretend to be a simple soldier -"_ he tossed his mask-and-wig into the flames. " _\- but in reality you are just afraid to admit that we have left humanity behind!"_

"Erskine was right," said Scott. "This guy's a nutcase."

" _Unlike you, I embrace it proudly,"_ continued the Red Skull as he walked away. " _Without fear!"_

"Again!" said Peter.

" _Then how come you're running?"_ demanded Steve. But the Red Skull followed Zola through the door near their end of the bridge.

"He's running 'cause it's about to blow up," said Clint. "You guys should run too."

Instead of answering, Red Skull closed the door and vanished from sight.

But almost as if to prove Clint's point, the explosions began in earnest. The whole building rocked as if it were going to collapse.

" _C'mon, let's go. Up,"_ said Steve herding Bucky toward the stairs.

Inside an elevator ("So that's how they got out," said Maria. "Never knew for sure.") Zola's glasses radiated anxiety as he looked up at Red Skull. " _Sir,"_ he faltered. " _Are we going to the roof?"_

The elevator doors opened, and through the opening could be seen the night sky and what looked like a single-passenger plane.

" _What about me?"_ asked Zola. " _Where will I sit?"_

"Where indeed, underling?" asked Thor.

Red Skull dropped a key with a HYDRA medallion attached to it into Zola's hand. " _Not a scratch, doctor,"_ he said. " _Not a scratch."_ And he strode off, leaving Zola in the elevator.

"He must be a valuable underling," said T'Challa.

Inside, Bucky and Steve came skidding to a halt in from of a large metal crossbeam that was still attached at both ends. It was rattling threateningly.

"Do _all_ you mad mortals enjoy flirting with death?!" asked Thor incredulously. Jane punched him.

"We're Avengers, it's what we do," said the real Steve thoughtlessly, and then bit his lip. The room grew cooler again.

Outside, and it wasn't very clear how Zola had got there, a black motorcar with HYDRA decorations on it sat waiting as he hurried to it. Hastily he threw his bag into it and climbed inside. He started it with the key, and drove off. Up on the roof, Red Skull had started his plane, which he steered into the night.

"Not a scratch," said Laura.

"But at least that mask came off," said Darcy.

" _Let's go, one at a time,"_ Steve urged. Bucky swung his legs over the railing and balanced himself on the crossbeam.

"Are either of you scared of heights?" asked Natasha.

"Love 'em," said the real Bucky, and "Hate 'em," said the real Steve simultaneously.

Slowly, foot by foot, onscreen Bucky made his way across the beam.

"They didn't die, they didn't die, they didn't die. . ." Jane was muttering.

Then, when Bucky was about halfway across, the beam began to snap.

Rhodey gave an involuntary howl. Wanda and Jane screamed.

"It's okay, it's good!" said the real Bucky.

Onscreen Bucky bounded across the beam even as it fell, and jumped the last few feet to the other side, catching hold of the railing and swinging himself over.

"See, I made it!" said the real Bucky.

"You made it," sighed Bruce.

Onscreen Bucky whirled around as soon as he was safe. " _There's gotta be a rope or something!"_ he shouted.

" _Just go!"_ shouted Steve. " _Get out of here!"_

" _No! Not without you!"_ screamed Bucky.

"You think you're the only one allowed to throw your life away for someone you care about?!" growled the real Bucky.

"Careful there," rumbled Tony. "You're sounding like an Avenger."

The real Steve's eyes widened. Bucky actually made eye contact with Tony, opened his mouth to speak, and changed his mind.

Onscreen Steve grabbed the railing and with an effort began to bend it to the side. He backed up as far as he could.

"You know," said Fury. "Something I've noticed, Cap -"

Onscreen, Steve ran the few steps forward and went sailing through the air. A burst of fire engulfed their view of him.

The real Steve effectively silenced all coming protests by saying, "Hey, I'm here, aren't I?"

"Doesn't make it easier to watch," said Maria. "Classic movie scare."

When the flames vanished, someone was punching a typewriter. " _Senator Brandt,"_ came the voice of Colonel Phillips as he dictated to the man at the machine. " _I regret to report that Captain Steven G. Rogers went missing behind enemy lines on the third. Aerial reconnaissance has proven unfruitful. As a result, I must declare Captain Rogers killed in action."_

"Well, are they in for a surprise or what?" said Sam.

"Peggy doesn't think so, look at her," said Natasha.

Peggy Carter had come into the tent, and she paused at the edge as Phillips finished dictating the letter. When he finished she came up with a number of papers in hand. " _The last surveillance flight is back,"_ she said. " _No sign of activity."_

"Where were they looking?" asked Scott. "Looked like a lot of activity back at that lab to me."

Phillips looked over the papers. " _Go get a cup of coffee, Corporal,"_ he said without looking up.

"Uh-oh, here it comes," said Rhodey.

" _Yes, sir,"_ said the man, and left. Phillips paced away from Peggy, but his words were obviously directed at her nonetheless. " _Can't touch Stark,"_ he said. " _He's rich, and he's the army's number one weapons contractor. You -"_ he turned back to look at Peggy. " _\- are neither one."_

"Please don't," Sharon pleaded in vain.

" _With respect, sir, I don't regret my actions,"_ said Peggy. " _And I don't think Captain Rogers did, either."_

"He still doesn't," said the real Steve.

" _What makes you think I give a damn about your opinions?"_ growled the Colonel. " _I took a chance with you, Agent Carter, and now a lot of America's golden boy and a lot of other good men are dead because you had a crush."_

"Weren't the 'lot of other good men' sort of doomed anyway?" asked Peter.

" _It wasn't that,"_ said Peggy, steely-eyed. " _I had faith."_

"Good point, but still technically a bad move," said Sam.

" _Well, I hope that's a big comfort to you when they shut this division down,"_ said Phillips.

Peggy just stared back at him.

And then, voices leaking into the tent from outside caught Phillips's attention - " _No way!" "I don't believe this!"_ \- and then came the sounds of many feet running by outside.

"Here they come!" cheered Clint.

" _What the hell's going on out there?"_ demanded the Colonel, and strode past Peggy out of the tent. Peggy followed him.

"Oh, it was then?" said Steve in surprise.

"What can I say? We got great timing, man," said Bucky.

"We? I got you out of there, you bastard!" said Steve with mock indignation.

Outside, there was quite a crowd gathering as Phillips and Peggy as they approached the edge of the camp. There, striding up the ridge with all the former HYDRA prisoners behind him and Bucky at his side and a fanfare heralding his arrival, strode Captain America himself.

The room broke into applause.

"So, what were you saying, Fury?" said the real Steve with a grin. "The one thing you've noticed?"

"That you're really good at jumping out of stuff," said Fury.

"I really dig this music," said Clint. "It's so Grand-Old-Flag-ish, and so. . ."

"So _Cap_ ," said Natasha, nodding. "I agree."

Steve and his company marched into the camp, past lines of cheering men - the very men who had so mocked him when he had performed for them just yesterday. He shared a look with Bucky, and smiled.

The real Bucky and Steve grinned and bumped fists.

Any of the men who were by chance still sleeping came piling out of their tents to stare; but Steve marched straight up to Colonel Phillips and saluted. " _Some of these men need medical attention,"_ he said.

"I need medical attention," said the real Bucky.

There followed a short pause as Phillips glanced round at all the men, and then back at Steve. Then Steve said, " _I'd like to surrender myself for disciplinary action."_

"Did you get in trouble?" asked Bruce curiously.

" _That won't be necessary,"_ said Phillips.

"You heard what he said," said the real Steve as his onscreen self remained quiet for a moment before saying, " _Yes, sir."_

Colonel Phillips turned and walked off. " _Faith, huh?"_ he said to Peggy as he passed her.

"Faith, indeed," said Maria.

"He proves himself to all," said Thor proudly. Steve blushed.

Then Peggy walked up to Steve and stopped right in front of him. " _You're late,"_ she said.

Natasha made kissing noises. Steve shot her a glare for good measure.

Onscreen Steve smiled, fished in his pocket, and pulled out his transponder, about a quarter of which was missing. " _Couldn't call my ride,"_ he said.

Peggy smiled up at him.

" _Hey!"_ shouted Bucky, drawing everyone's attention. " _Let's hear it for Captain America!"_

And all the men burst into cheers.

So did the Avengers and their friends (even Tony smiled), causing the real Steve to blush once more.

" _I am honored,"_ said Senator Brandt. " _To present this medal for valor to my personal friend Captain America!"_

He was standing in front of the White House, and he turned to welcome Steve onstage. Steve did not appear.

"What an irony," said Natasha. "Now that you've actually earned a valor medal you can't be there to get it."

" _Captain America!"_ called the Senator, as the well-dressed men and women in the audience began to whisper among themselves.

"Oh, the awkwardness!" said Scott happily.

" _Captain America, that's your cue!"_ said the Senator, turning fully.

A man - in fact, the man who had pushed Steve onstage at his first performance - came hurrying up to the Senator and whispered in his ear.

" _I thought he'd be taller,"_ said an elderly man in uniform with many medals and pins.

"He is!" said Pepper, amused.

On a street in London, a newsstand displayed an issue with the title _Captain America To Receive Medal For Valor_ ; down below the street in an underground shelter, the SSR was gathered around a table with a large map spread out on it.

Steve was marking out the locations of the other HYDRA bases. " _This one was here in Poland near the Baltic,"_ he said. " _And the sixth one was about -"_ he bent forward and squinted. " _\- here, thirty or forty miles west of the Maginot line. I just got a quick look,"_ he finished apologetically.

"Oh, I just got a quick look, I can only be precise within ten miles," Bucky rolled his eyes.

Peggy, who was standing next to Steve, raised her eyebrows as someone pulled the map away. " _Well, nobody's perfect,"_ she said before walking off. Steve looked after her with a smile.

Natasha made more kissing noises, which earned her a sudden punch from Sharon. Of course being Natasha, she just rolled her eyes and smirked.

" _These are the weapons factories we know about,"_ said Steve, now walking between Phillips and Peggy toward a map which now had little flags marking the locations of the labs. " _Sergeant Barnes said that HYDRA shipped all the parts off to another facility that isn't on this map."_

" _Agent Carter, coordinate with MI6,"_ said Phillips at once. " _I want every Allied eyeball looking for that main HYDRA base."_

" _What about us?"_ asked Peggy.

"Which 'us'?" asked Bucky.

" _We are going to set a fire under Johann Schmidt's ass,"_ said Phillips ("Woo-hoo!" cheered Scott). A woman with curled blonde hair came up to Phillips and handed him a document before turning a coquettish look on Steve. " _What do you say, Rogers?"_ he went on as he took it from her. " _You drew a map, you think you can wipe HYDRA off of it?"_

"He's part of operations now!" said Darcy.

"They'd be crazy to do otherwise," said Betty.

" _Yes, sir!"_ said Steve. " _I'll need a team."_

" _We're already putting together the best men,"_ said Phillips.

"The 'best men' thing again?" said Peter.

" _With all due respect, sir,"_ said Steve. " _So am I."_

"I sure was!" grinned the real Steve.


	10. Hail the Howling Commandos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Howling Commandos are recruited, Steve's love life come up again, and the raids begin.

**All rights belong to Marvel Studios. And to David Guetta.**

* * *

Dum Dum Dugan put his mug down on the table. " _So let's get this straight,"_ he said.

" _We barely got out of there alive,"_ said Gabe Jones. " _And you want us to go back?"_

"You bet!" said Bucky dryly.

" _Pretty much,"_ said onscreen Steve with a nod. He and Dugan and Gabe were sitting around a table in a pub with Jim Morita and James Falsworth. All were enjoying mugs of beer, and seemed to have been at it for some time.

"You know, only Cap could get away with this," said Clint.

" _Sounds rather fun, actually,"_ said Falsworth, and he smiled.

"More fun than a barrel of monkeys," muttered Fury.

Wanda had no time to ask what a 'barrel of monkeys' might be, because at that moment Morita belched loudly and said, " _I'm in."_

Laura tried hard not to wear her 'disapproving mom' look. May didn't bother. "Gorgeous," she muttered.

With a grin at Steve, Falsworth broke into a rapid stream of French, and Gabe answered in like manner. Falsworth laughingly spoke again, and the two shook hands. Dugan, Morita, and Steve looked on with raised eyebrows.

"What did they say?" asked Betty.

"They said they'd fight till those bastards are dead, chained, or bawling like babies!" grinned the real Steve.

"Or all three," said Natasha just as cheerfully.

Gabe turned back to the others, pointing from himself fo Falsworth. " _We're in,"_ he said.

"Awesome!" said the real Bucky.

Onscreen Steve smiled.

" _And I'll always fight,"_ said Dugan, raising his mug. " _But you gotta do one thing for me."_

" _What's that?"_ asked Steve.

"Buy the beer?" guessed Tony. Wanda was almost _happy_ to hear him even begin to return to his pre-Accords self (aside from the episodes of depression and the anxiety attacks, of course).

Dugan took a gulp of beer and put his mug down on the table. " _Open a tab."_

The others laughed, and Steve got up obligingly with all the empty mugs and carried them up to the counter. " _Another round,"_ he said to the bartender.

" _Where are they putting all this stuff?"_ asked the bartender in astonishment.

"You had them quite toasty," said Vision.

"Are you kidding me, there's no way they'd have agreed to that sober," said the real Steve unrepentantly.

On a rather beaten-up piano, a hired musician began a lively chorus on which many of the people in the pub joined in. " _There is a tavern in the town. . ."_

On the couch, Steve and Bucky began to him along quietly, the music carrying them back to the old days even more than did watching themselves onscreen. Rhodey, who were sitting on the couch next to them, tattled immediately. "Hey, what do you know, they both can sing!"

"I never said I couldn't," said Bucky placidly.

Steve stopped humming. "Turncoat!"

Onscreen Steve made his way through the crowded room to sit down next to Bucky. " _See? Told you,"_ said that individual as he took a pull from his glass. " _They're all idiots."_

"They're all _drunk_ , there's a difference," said Pepper, with a look at Tony. Wanda easily picked up the exasperation laced with fondness in the woman's voice. _Taking a break, indeed._

" _How about you?"_ onscreen Steve asked Bucky. " _You ready to follow Captain America into the jaws of death?"_

"And beyond," said Sharon.

" _Hell no,"_ said Bucky. " _That little fellow in Brooklyn who was too dumb to run away from a fight, I'm following him."_

"Somebody had to watch your six," said the real Bucky.

Onscreen Bucky drained his glass. " _But you're keeping the outfit, right?"_

"Sure thing, pardner," said the real Steve, smirking.

Onscreen, Steve's lips curled, and he glanced up at a sign on the wall. It was a poster for the tour he'd been making, with himself in his stage outfit and a small banner which read TOUR CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE ("Tour cancelled until they find Cap!" Sam commented). " _You know what?"_ he said. " _It's kinda growing on me."_

T'Challa looked skeptical, and though he said nothing aloud (ever the diplomat) Wanda knew quite well that he was very happy that Captain America had seen fit to, er, _upgrade_ the uniform since then.

Thor smirked, and then the his lip twitched.

" _And remember that the best of friends must part, must part_. . ." A snatch of the song drifted over from the table where Steve had left his other friends, but their voices suddenly died away and they turned to stare as somebody walked past them. Steve and Bucky craned their necks to get a look at a woman in a red dress who was approaching them, her high heels clacking. She looked quite out of place.

"What the hell is _Peggy Carter_ doing there?!" squawked Jane.

"Looking for me," said the real Steve, and he shot Bucky an evil smile. "You remember this, right?"

"Shut up," grumbled Bucky.

"Remember what?" asked Thor curiously - he always knew when there was a good story afoot.

Onscreen, Steve and Bucky had risen to their feet as Peggy came to a halt in front of them. " _Captain,"_ she said.

" _Agent Carter,"_ said Steve respectfully.

" _Ma'am,"_ said Bucky after looking her over.

The lounge went up in stifled laughter.

Peggy came a few steps closer, and Wanda noticed that the dress she was wearing had a _deep_ V-neckline. " _Howard has some equipment for you to try,"_ she said ("Equipment?!" Tony choked. " _No_ -o!" groaned the real Steve.), addressing Steve without a look at Bucky. " _Tomorrow morning?"_ She smiled. Her lips were _very_ red.

" _Sounds good,"_ said Steve.

There then followed a moment where Steve's eyes slid over to Bucky, and Bucky looked from Steve to Peggy, and then looked down at his feet.

Sharon giggled.

""Oh, man!" said Sam sympathetically.

"Yup!" said the real Bucky wryly.

Then Peggy glanced over at Dugan, Jones, Falsworth, and Morita, who had resumed the song. " _I see your top squad is prepping for duty,"_ she said.

"C'mon, let them drink! They've just been through hell!" protested Betty.

Bucky smiled at her. " _You don't like music?"_ he asked.

" _I do, actually,"_ said Peggy, still looking only at Steve. " _I might even, when this is all over, go dancing."_

Sam whistled. Steve socked him.

" _Then what are we waitin' for?"_ asked Bucky.

" _The right partner,"_ said Peggy, her eyes never leaving Steve's face for a moment.

" _Awk_ -ward!" said Bruce.

Then Peggy turned to go. " _0800, Captain,"_ she said, and clicked off.

" _Yes ma'am, I'll be there!"_ Steve called after her.

"Score for Cap!" cheered Peter.

"How 'bout me?" asked the real Bucky, miffed.

Onscreen Bucky turned to Steve, horrified. " _I'm invisible,"_ he said. " _I'm turning into you, it's like a horrible dream!"_

"What can I say?" the real Steve shrugged and grinned. Bucky slugged him.

Onscreen, Steve just smirked and patted Bucky's shoulder. " _Don't take it so hard,"_ he said. " _Maybe she's got a friend."_

Laughter weaved throughout the room again as onscreen Bucky stared rather disconsolately into space, undoubtedly wondering how his life had progressed to this point.

The scene changed. Howard Stark and a bespectacled assistant were working with the little cartridge of Tesseract energy that Steve had brought back. He had managed to lift from it a tiny particle which glowed bright blue. " _Omission signature is unusual,"_ he said. " _Alpha-beta ray neutral, though I doubt Rogers picked up on that._ (Steve shrugged.) _Seems harmless enough. Hard to see what all the fuss is about."_

"You can call the Tesseract a lot of things, but 'harmless' is _not_ one of them!" declared Thor emphatically.

As if to prove his point, a pair of tongs with delicate tips reached to touch the particle. There was a small sound like a sizzling, and a pulse of light and energy blasted all around the room, sending Howard and his assistant flying along the floor.

"And that's what all the fuss was about," said Natasha.

"You mad scientists," grumbled Clint. Tony, Bruce, Betty, and Jane all turned and glared at him (Wanda supposed Peter and Scott did not imagine themselves in this category).

Howard picked himself up off the floor, staring at the cartridge. " _Write that down,"_ he said.

"Musta been a real interesting journal entry," said Tony.

"You're _Iron Man_ , you're one to talk," said Peter.

Steve came into the SSR shelter, looking around for Peggy. " _Excuse me!"_ he said to a woman sitting and reading a newspaper. " _I'm looking for Mr. Stark."_

The real Steve's eyes widened. "Oh no," he moaned.

"Huh?" Bucky squinted.

" _He's in with Colonel Phillips,"_ said the woman - none other, in fact, than the blond who had so openly flirted with Steve the day before - without looking up.

Steve, obviously unsure of himself, put his hands behind his back and waited. The woman glanced up in annoyance, then did a double take. Her tone changed instantly. " _Of course you're welcome to wait,"_ she said invitingly.

Sharon began to look suspicious. "Hmm."

"Well, look who's big man on campus!" said Maria.

"How long ya got?" asked Bucky, waggling his eyebrows.

"Please shoot me," moaned Steve as his onscreen self, moved to a nearby table and sat down on it to wait.

The woman folded the paper, and crossed her legs. Then she turned her chair so that she was facing Steve, her legs dangling alluringly off to the side. " _I, uh, read about what you did,"_ she purred. The headline of the paper ran _400 Prisoners Liberated_ , making it clear what she'd been reading about.

When _Fury_ wolf-whistled, everybody else stopped trying to hold in their laughter and cheers. Steve jumped around to stare at Fury, who winked.

" _Oh, the - yeah,"_ said the Steve onscreen, gesturing toward the paper. " _Well, that's. . .you know. . ."_ he fidgeted and cleared his throat. " _Just doing what needed to be done."_

Bucky threw up his single hand. "Are you _trying_ to be adorably dumb?" he asked over the continuing laughter. "'Cause it's working!"

The real Steve was spluttering. "I hadn't had any experience!" he protested.

" _Sounded like more than that,"_ said the woman. " _You saved nearly four hundred men."_

"I'll say you didn't!" cried Sharon, still laughing.

Onscreen Steve was silent.

The woman began twirling her foot, slowly.

"Bam chicka wah wah!" sang Darcy.

"Mo-o-o-ron!" booed Bucky.

" _Really, it's not a big deal,"_ said onscreen Steve.

" _Tell that to their wives,"_ said the woman, getting up and approaching him slowly.

Wanda was _shrieking_ with laughter.

" _Ah,"_ Steve's jaw slackened and he blinked and gulped. " _I don't think they were all married."_

"No, they're not!" gasped Bruce, clutching his side.

" _You're a hero,"_ said the woman, now practically between his legs.

"Why?" implored the real Steve. "Just _why_ did they have to show this one?!"

Onscreen Steve sputtered, as she was reaching for his collar. " _Well that, you know, that depends on your definition of -"_

" _The women of America, they owe you their thanks,"_ she said, getting a good grip on his tie and pulling him off the table back toward the chair she'd been sitting in. " _And, seeing as they're not here. . ."_ She drew him to her and began kissing him soundly.

And then a pair of heels came clicking around the corner, and Peggy Carter strode into view.

"Mighty Odin!" gasped Thor, doubling over.

"It _had_ to be her," wheezed Scott.

"I knew it! I _knew_ she didn't make that one up!" cried Sharon triumphantly.

Peggy halted as the other woman's arms came up around Steve's neck, hands on hips. " _Captain!"_ she barked. Steve started back and wheeled round.

"Oh, you are _so_ dead!" hooted Jane at the look on Peggy's face.

"I know I'm dead!" said the real Steve.

" _We're ready for you, if you're not otherwise occupied,"_ snapped Agent Carter, and she strode off with a most impressive flourish.

Steve hurried after her. " _Agent Carter, wait,"_ he began.

"Too little, too late, buddy!" cackled Sam.

" _Looks like finding a partner wasn't that hard after all,"_ said Peggy, not sparing him a glance.

" _Peggy, that's not what you thought it was,"_ protested Steve.

"First-name basis?" Natasha rolled her eyes.

" _I don't think anything Captain,"_ said Peggy. " _Not one thing. You always wanted to be a soldier and now you are, just like all the rest."_

Steve scowled. " _Well, what about you and Stark?"_ he blurted out. " _How do I know you two haven't been . . . fondue-ing?"_

"Oh my _God_ ," groaned Bucky. "Could you _be_ any worse at this?!"

Peggy stopped and turned to look incredulously at onscreen Steve. He stared back at her, probably wishing he hadn't said it but unwilling to back down.

Then Peggy turned back around walked off with the words, " _You still don't know a bloody thing about women."_

"Well, there really isn't any reason he would," Sharon told her aunt.

Onscreen Steve stared after Peggy for a full ten seconds before going in.

" _Fondue is just cheese and bread, my friend,"_ said Howard Stark ("Or fruit and chocolate!" observed T'Challa. "Very erotic!").

" _Really?"_ said Steve as he walked into the conference room with Howard. " _I didn't think -"_

" _Nor should you, pal,"_ said Howard. " _The moment you think you know what's going on in a woman's head is the moment your goose is well and truly cooked."_

"And boy, you'd know, wouldn't you, Dad?" scoffed Tony. Nobody dared speak.

" _Me, I concentrate on work,"_ Howard went on. " _which, at the moment, is about making sure you and your men do not get killed."_

"You do that," muttered Tony, with a sidelong look at Bucky and the real Steve.

By this time they'd reached one of the tables, which had a number of different shields lined up on it, including the old stage prop that Steve had carried into the HYDRA lab. Howard pointed out what looked like a body suit lying next to them. " _Carbon polymer,"_ he said, running his fingers along its surface. " _Should withstand your average Gernam bayonet_ ("You did not just say _bayonet_ , did you?" asked Laura incredulously) _, although HYDRA's not going to attack you with a pocket knife_ ("You can say that again," said the real Steve) _. I hear you're, ah, kind of attached."_ He patted the steel stage prop Steve had been using.

" _It's handier than you might think,"_ said Steve as he passed it.

The real Steve just shrugged.

" _I took the liberty,"_ said Howard. " _of coming up with some options."_

"Let's see what he's got!" said Sam with interest.

" _This one's fun,"_ said Howard, pointing out one of the shields. " _She's being fitted for electrical relays that allow you to -"_

But Steve's eye caught sight of a perfectly round one which was sitting on the under-ledge of the table, mostly out of sight. " _What about this one?"_ he asked, picking it up.

"There it is!" said Thor.

" _No, no, that's a prototype,"_ Howard protested with a wave of his hand.

"Hasn't really ever been 'upgraded,'" said the real Steve.

" _What's it made of?"_ went on Steve onscreen, testing its weight and feel on his arm.

" _Vibranium,"_ said Howard. " _It's stronger than steel, and a third the weight. It's completely vibration absorbent."_

"I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose . . . " sang Darcy softly.

"That explains things," said Peter half to himself, remembering the odd feel and behavior of the shield.

" _How come it's not standard issue?"_ asked Steve, looking up.

"Standard issue, that's a laugh!" said the real Steve.

" _That's the rarest metal on earth,"_ said Howard. " _What you're holding there, that's all we've got."_

"Er, your Highness -" began Tony.

"Yes, he acquired it legally," said T'Challa.

" _You quite finished, Mr. Stark?"_ asked Peggy, walking up toward the two men. " _I'm sure the captain has some unfinished business."_

"Oh, she's _mad_ ," said Rhodey.

" _What d'you think?"_ asked Steve, holding up the shield and smiling at her.

"I was trying to make amends, just so you know," said the real Steve. "I'm not quite -"

Peggy reached for a pistol on the table next to her, pointed it straight at onscreen Steve, and fired a round of blanks at his head. Steve raised the shield only just in time.

Howard and everybody else in the room stared at her, visibly stunned.

"- that dumb," finished the real Steve.

"Whatever you say!" said Sharon.

"Oh, my God!" cried Darcy. "They didn't put this part in the archives!"

"That's why you don't make agents jealous," said Natasha. "They might kill you, quickly if you're lucky." She smiled rather unnervingly.

Onscreen, Steve's head slowly came up over the edge of the shield, his eyes wide.

" _Yes, I think it works,"_ said Peggy with a satisfied smile.

"Um, yeah, I think it does!" said Scott.

Peggy put down the gun and gazed at Steve as she marched past him and out the door.

Steve stared after her as before. Howard came to stand beside him, also staring after Peggy. Steve handed him a piece of paper. " _I had some ideas about the uniform,"_ he said.

" _Whatever you want, pal,"_ said Howard.

And the scene changed again.

Steve was in uniform, complete with the blue helmet. He loaded a pistol and put his shield, now painted in the familiar pattern, on his back.

"Now it starts!" said Thor.

Steve burst into another HYDRA base with his trusted squad the Howling Commandos behind him, firing away ("The good old days!" said the real Bucky a bit wistfully). He kicked and shield-knocked his way through his opponents.

"That one was easy," said Steve conversationally as his onscreen self and his comrades came running back out of the base as it blew up.

"You ride that bike, Cap," said Maria as Steve came flying out on his motorcycle.

"So you've always done that with motorcycles?" asked Thor.

"Yeah," said the Steve on the couch.

"So he still does that," said Bucky.

The Red Skull came speeding up in his black motorcar to look over the burning wreckage.

"So hard to know if he's actually scowling or what," said Laura.

Back at the SSR, someone moved one of the decorated pins off the map Steve had drawn. Peggy took the pin and set it aside.

"That's one!" said Sam.

Steve and the Howling Commandos were in another winter-bare forest, Steve scouting ahead. Once he was satisfied, he motioned the others forward. He waited as they came slowly forward, looking up and around. Then, without warning he suddenly tossed his shield high into the air toward one of the trees. A man fell out of it with a thud.

"Whoa!" shouted Clint. "How did you -"

Steve caught his shield again and put it back on his arm, and the squad proceeded. They raced through the forest despite heavy fire, even running right past a tank and blowing it up.

"That was fun!" said the real Steve.

Then Jim Morita whistled and shone a flashlight from some hidden position, and the rest of the squad huddled with steve near a cleared path. Falsworth took an explosive and ran out into the middle of the path with it just as a truck came driving up.

"Whose idea -?!" cried May.

Falsworth flung himself to the ground and as the truck _drove right over him_ fastened the thing on its underside. Then he stood up and covered his ears as the truck exploded. He clapped his hands in triumph.

"His idea, I swear," said the real Bucky at the looks he and Steve were getting.

"I guess that's two!" said Sam, shaking his head.

In a movie theater back in London, Peggy sat beside Colonel Phillips watching footage of Steve and the Commandos ("You guys had a cameraman with you?!" asked Jane incredulously). It showed Steve and the others planning their next raid. As Steve's right hand passed over the map, his left was shown with a little picture of Peggy.

On the couch, Steve went pink.

"Awww!" said Bucky.

"Shut up," grumbled Steve.

Phillips looked over at Peggy. Peggy looked Supremely Uncomfortable. Her eyes slid nervously over in the colonel's direction.

"More awkward," Bruce amended.

But then Peggy smiled, and Steve (the real one) relaxed. He'd always wondered what had changed her mind about him.

Then, at another HYDRA lab, onscreen Steve appeared as the focal point of some weapon. The view then panned up to focus on a HYDRA warrior about to gun Steve down.

Bucky fired, and the man fell. Steve looked up at him and gave him a salute.

"Wahoo! Go Bucky!" cheered the real Steve, and many of the others joined in the spontaneous applause.

"And that's three!" said Sam, counting as Peggy removed another HYDRA pin from the map.

At yet another HYDRA lab, Steve fought his way through the men that came near him. There came a slow-motion shot of him tossing the shield like a great frisbee.

"Awesome shot!" said Scott.

Onscreen Steve jumped up onto a tank, busted the lock, and pulled open the door. He reached inside and yanked out the man inside. From the ground, Falsworth tossed him another of the explosive devices, which Steve caught and tossed down into the tank. He took a great running leap as the tank burst into flames. The shot slowed again as he sailed through the air.

"Jumping out of stuff," said the real Steve reflectively.

"Like I said," said Fury.

* * *

**Yeah, I know Screen Junkies made that joke before. Sue me, it's a good one. Anyway, thanks as always for your continued reviews! Please keep reviewing!**


	11. On the Wings of the Valkyrie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HYDRA incurs a debt, and Peggy gives comfort.

**Two chapters to go after this!**

**All rights belong to Marvel Studios. Fair warning, the language gets a bit rougher in this chapter. I think you all know why.**

* * *

" _You are failing!"_ roared the Red Skull. He was standing with Doctor Zola at the scene of the latest raid, a smoking ruin. " _We are close to an offensive that could shake the planet, yet we are continually delayed because you cannot outwit a simpleton with a shield!"_

"Ya know, this is what makes life good," said Steve happily. "Driving the bad guys bonkers."

" _This is hardly my area of expertise,"_ protested Zola. " _I merely develop the weapons, I cannot fire them."_

"Who's supposed to, then?" asked Tony scornfully.

The Red Skull just glared down at the little man. " _Finish your mission, doctor,"_ he growled. " _before the American finishes his."_

"But you can't!" said Bucky. "Cause the Star Spangled Man with -"

"Keep it up and I'm calling you by your name," said Steve sternly. Bucky shut up.

" _Sir!"_ called a voice from behind the two men, and Red Skull turned to look at a man who was being held at gunpoint by one of Red Skull's guards. " _I'm sorry, Herr Schmidt,"_ he said. " _We fought to the last man!"_

Zola looked away as Red Skull lifted a small gun. " _Evidently not,"_ said the HYDRA leader, and up went the unfortunate man in a blue flash.

Hardly anyone even flinched. They had expected no less.

"Dictators," said Pepper flatly.

Falsworth pulled a pair of binoculars down from his eyes. He and Steve and the other Commandos were all standing on the side of a snowy mountain next to a rope that was stretched between it and another mountain.

On the couch, Steve clapped his hand to his mouth. "Oh, my God," he said. Bucky blew out his breath.

"This is it, isn't it?" said Sharon quietly. Steve just nodded.

The room fell silent, and Thor looked uneasy. Wanda didn't have to guess. The gloom rolling off both Steve and Bucky in waves said more than enough.

Morita and Jones were tinkering with a radio. A voice speaking in German was coming through Morita's headset.

" _Remember when I made you ride the Cyclone on Coney Island?"_ said Bucky, who was next to Steve.

" _Yeah, and I threw up?"_ came the reply.

"Told you I don't like heights," said the real Steve, lightening up only a little. Bucky managed a chuckle.

" _This isn't payback, is it?"_ asked onscreen Bucky, staring down the mountain. A train track ran along the ground under the telephone wire.

Steve smirked. " _Now why would I do that?"_

" _We were right,"_ said Jones, and Steve turned round. " _Doctor Zola's on the train. HYDRA dispatcher gave him permission to open up the throttle. Wherever he's going, they must need him bad."_

"Wonder where he was originally headed," said Rhodey.

"Last HYDRA base, in the Alps," said Maria helpfully.

Steve put on his helmet, and Falsworth lifted the binoculars again. Through them he glimpsed the train in the distance. " _Let's get going, because they're moving like the devil,"_ he said grimly.

Steve got ready to slide down the rope with a handlebar. " _We've only got about a ten-second window,"_ he said. " _You miss that window, we're bugs on a windshield."_

"Eh, you'll be good," said Clint.

Falsworth smirked. " _Mind the gap!"_ he said.

" _What_ does that mean?" asked Thor.

"Later, buddy," said Tony.

" _Better get movin', bugs!"_ said Dugan.

" _Now!"_ cried one of the Commandos, and Steve went flying down the rope. Bucky went after him, and behind him came one more man whose face no one could see.

"Who was that?" asked Laura.

"Gabe," said Steve.

Onscreen, Steve landed right on top of the train, letting go of the rope. The other two followed in short order.

"Hey, they made it!" said Cooper.

"Does he ever not?" asked Peter.

The three men got up carefully and began running along the train toward the front ("On a _moving_ _train?_ " cried Betty). Steve reached the ladder nearest the engine first and began climbing down it ("I'm getting dizzy just looking at that," muttered Pepper, rubbing her forehead). Bucky followed him; Jones remained on top of the train, weapon at the ready.

Steve opened the cabin door and swung himself inside, Bucky on his heels. It was quiet, and empty of people. There were rows of what looked like parts of extremely large and dangerous weapons in very long cases.

"Anybody home?" asked Scott as Steve and Bucky made their way forward.

"They're just giving us a special welcome," said the real Bucky.

At the other end of the room was an open doorway. Steve passed through it cautiously, looking all around him. Sounds of clanging nearby made him stop and turn his head, but when nothing happened he kept going.

"Wait for it . . ." went on the real Bucky.

Then, just when onscreen Steve was over the threshold, the door suddenly slammed shut in Bucky's face.

Wanda jumped, and she wasn't the only one.

" _Oh,_ shit!" said Bruce.

Steve whirled around to look through the window. Bucky had turned as well and was shooting.

A man with a rather complicated-looking weapon came up behind Steve.

"What the hell _is_ that thing?!" cried Tony.

Steve jumped back around just in time, and raised his shield against the bursts of blue.

" _Stop him!"_ cried Zola, who was watching from a control room.

"What'd I tell ya?" said Steve.

"I told 'em," corrected Bucky.

" _Fire again!"_ ordered Zola, and the man in the cabin with Steve fired again.

Onscreen Bucky darted to the other side of the room. He fired at his assailant, who ducked behind a stack of crates. Bucky followed suit. They exchanged more gunfire.

"Hard to compete with _that_ when all you have is a sidearm," observed the real Bucky distantly.

Steve's vibranium shield was doing very well at warding off blasts from the HYDRA weapon, but his pistol was next to useless as an offensive weapon against it. He jumped up, grabbed something dangling from the ceiling, and came sliding toward the guard, shield blocking the man's shots, and jumped down to kick him and knock him out.

"Hey! All right!" cheered Bruce.

"One down, one to go," said May.

In the next cabin, the other guard inched toward Bucky. When he was about halfway, Bucky jumped up and fired three shots, moving quickly across to the other side and ducking down again.

"Rats! Missed!" hissed the real Bucky.

Onscreen Steve picked up the contraption (whatever it was) and fired it at the door into the next compartment to unlock it.

Zola watched apprehensively, hovering near the microphone.

Bucky and the guard were still unsuccessfully shooting at each other, and Bucky had just run out of ammunition. Steve went up to the door of the compartment, and pulled his pistol out again. Then he quietly pulled the door open and signalled to Bucky, who nodded.

Steve threw his pistol to Bucky and tore into the compartment, using the shield to send one of the crates flying into the other HYDRA guard and pinning him to the floor.

"Booyah!" cheered Thor.

The other Avengers all turned and stared at him. "Did you just -" began Tony

" _I had him on the ropes,"_ protested Bucky as he stood up.

"Uh-huh," said Sam.

" _I know you did,"_ said Steve as someone appeared in the doorway behind him with a blue-glowing weapon.

"Why don't you ever look behind you?!" cried Fury.

Onscreen Steve turned around at the noise of the weapon getting ready to fire. " _Get down!"_ he roared, ducking behind the shield as the man fired. The blast ricocheted and blew half the wall out of one side of the compartment.

"Holy shit!" shouted Scott.

" _Fire again! Kill him now!"_ ordered Zola.

"Goddammit!" hissed Jane.

Bucky and Steve had been sent sprawling, and the shield lay on the floor. Bucky leaped to his feet, seized the shield, and held it up as he fired past it.

"Oh my -" sputtered the normally articulate Natasha.

Wanda gave a small squeak. So far only Steve had carried the shield; the image of Bucky behind it was more than a little heart-stopping.

But then the guard fired again, and Bucky went sailing out the opening on the side, losing his grip on the shield.

"NO!" shouted Thor involuntarily.

"Bucky!" cried Laura.

The real Bucky was pale and silent. Steve's shoulders were heaving.

Onscreen, Steve grabbed the shield and hurled it at the guard, sending him tumbling. Then he ran toward the opening in the side of the train. " _Bucky!"_ he called.

Bucky was dangling from one of the handlebars on the outside of the train, clinging for dear life. The track now ran along the edge of the mountain; if Bucky let go, he would fall to his death.

"Oh, my God," said Betty shakily.

Steve began inching out of the opening toward his friend. " _Hang on!"_ he shouted.

"Oh, _no_ ," moaned Thor.

Pepper had begun to cry, and Jane was not far behind.

" _Grab my hand!"_ shouted Steve, but the bar Bucky was hanging from broke at one end.

"Fuck!" shrieked Bruce.

The other end broke.

" _NO!"_ roared Steve.

Bucky fell with a scream.

The real Bucky gasped and slumped forward, trembling. Beside him, Steve grabbed at him to steady him - _and to make sure he's here even though I know better and WHAT IS WRONG WITH TONY?_

Tony appeared to be on the verge of another attack. Murderous rage and horrified pity do not mix well; his heart was thundering and he was shaking. Pepper had noticed and, with only a moment's hesitation, rushed to his seat and pushed his head down between his knees. This seemed to help.

Meanwhile, Thor was _sobbing_. His brother was a point of piercing grief at the best of times, and the visceral reminder of his 'death' was none the easier to watch for Loki now being truly dead.

Wanda had herself seen (and suffered) things much worse in her short life than death by a fall. So why did her heart clench as if Bucky had been one of her own childhood friends? After all, she barely knew the man. And he hadn't even truly _died_. . .

Or was what had really happened to Bucky actually better than dying?

She shied away from the thought and turned her attention back to the screen, just in time to see Gabe Jones burst into the engine of the train. Zola whirled around with a gasp, and shrank away from him as he pointed his gun.

"That's right, you slinking coward," said Jane in a shaking voice.

After a brief glance at a city street that was probably in London, the scene changed to the inside of what was undoubtedly a prison cell. A guard had apparently just let Zola in, and he handed the scientist his glasses before shutting the door. Zola took a look around at the four impenetrable walls, the cot, and the rude table, and then glanced down at the floor. There was blood on it - Zola seemed to be examining this.

Then the door opened again, and Colonel Phillips came in with a tray. " _Sit down,"_ he said to Zola.

On the tray was a plate, a cup, a knife, a fork, a salt shaker, and a pepper shaker. On the plate was a cut of steak, three small potatoes, and a few broccoli florets.

"That looks really good," said Peter, his voice sounding somewhat detached.

" _What's this?"_ asked Zola as the Colonel placed the tray in front of him.

"What's it look like?" muttered Bucky, who had calmed down a little.

" _Steak,"_ said Phillips.

" _What is in it?"_ asked Zola, looking at it rather apprehensively.

"Nothing bad," said Cooper rather peevishly. He was _very_ hungry.

" _Cow,"_ said Phillips, sitting down on the other side of the table. " _Doctor, do you realize how difficult it is to get ahold of a prime cut like that out here?"_

Zola's glasses gleamed in irony. " _I don't eat meat."_

"All that to get hold of a good steak, and he's a freaking vegetarian," grumbled Rhodey.

" _Why not?"_ asked Phillips, looking closely at him.

" _It disagrees with me,"_ said Zola.

" _How about cyanide?"_ asked Phillips. " _Does that give you the rumbly tummy too?"_

"Let's try it and see!" purred Natasha.

Zola just sat and looked at the Colonel.

" _Every HYDRA agent that we've tried to take alive has crunched a little pill before we can stop him,"_ said Phillips, picking up the silverware and getting to work on the steak ("No use wasting good meat," said Peter, who was also very hungry). " _But not you. So, here's my brilliant theory."_ He paused to put a bit of the steak in his mouth. " _You want to live."_

"Or he just wasn't as expendable," said Laura.

Zola smiled. " _You're trying to intimidate me, Colonel,"_ he said.

" _I bought you dinner,"_ said Phillips ("Which you're too persnickety to eat," muttered Pepper, whose hands had not left Tony's back), gesturing toward the plate. He slid a piece of paper across the table toward Zola, turning it so that the scientist could read it.

Zola looked over it while Phillips continued to eat. " _Given the valuable information he has provided,"_ he read aloud. " _and in exchange for his full cooperation, Dr, Zola is being remounted to Switzerland."_ He looked up questioningly.

Steve let out a derisive snort.

" _I sent that message to Washington this morning,"_ said Phillips. " _Of course it was encoded. You guys haven't broken those codes, have you?"_ He took another bite. " _That would be awkward."_

" _Schmidt will know this is a lie,"_ said Zola ("So they broke 'em," said Clint).

" _He's going to kill you anyway, Doc,"_ said the Colonel. " _You're a liability. You know more about Schmidt than anyone. And the last guy you cost us was Captain Rogers' closest friend, so I wouldn't count on the very best of protection."_

"But you still let him out and recruited him," growled Steve.

"What?!" cried Thor.

"Shh, later," said Maria.

" _It's you or Schmidt,"_ said Phillips. " _It's just the hand you've been dealt."_

Zola just smiled. Then he said, " _Schmidt believe he walks in the footsteps of the gods."_

"What would the likes you know about it?" growled Thor.

" _Hum?"_ asked Phillips.

" _Only the world itself will satisfy him,"_ said Zola.

" _You do realize that's nuts, don't you?"_ asked Phillips casually.

"Not with the Tesseract on his side, it isn't!" said Bruce.

" _The sanity of the plan is of no consequence,"_ said Zola, still smiling.

" _And why is that?"_ asked Phillips.

" _Because he can do it!"_ declared Zola emphatically.

"Unfortunately, he can," sighed Steve.

Phillips said only, " _What's his target?"_

"Did he not just say the world?" asked Fury.

Zola leaned forward. " _His target,"_ he said. " _is everywhere."_

Bucky shivered.

The next shot was of a great black aircraft - the _Valkyrie_ \- and on the ground beside it the Red Skull walked to stand in front of his men. Next to him stood a little table with a wine bottle and a glass on it.

" _Tomorrow,"_ said the Red Skull. " _HYDRA will stand master of the world, borne to victory on the wings of the Valkyrie."_ The masked faces of his soldiers passed before the eyes of the viewers as he spoke. " _Our enemies' weapons will be powerless against us. If they shoot down one plane, hundreds more shall rain fire upon them!"_ He lifted the glass. " _If they cut off one head -"_ half the room joined in. " _-two more shall take its place. Hail HYDRA!"_ And he drained the glass.

"Is he, uh, toasting his imminent victory?" Scott couldn't help but ask. "I mean, what's actually with that?"

" _Hail HYDRA!"_ chanted the crowd below, a crowd of hundreds, even thousands. " _Hail HYDRA! Hail HYDRA!"_

It really should have been a chilling moment, except for Scott's delightfully irreverent inquiry. "You know, I really couldn't answer that," said Steve with a shrug.

Peggy Carter stepped into the ruins of a house. It was dark, windows were broken, furniture was thrown all over the floor. She followed the sound of a radio, and found Steve sitting alone at a table. There was a bottle and a cup in front of him.

He looked up at the sound of her shoes, and sniffed. " _Dr. Erskine said that the serum wouldn't affect my muscles, it would affect my cells. Create a protective system of regeneration and healing. Which means . . . I can't get drunk."_

"Which is a problem?" asked Tony, but under his breath so that only Pepper heard.

On the screen, Peggy said nothing.

" _Did you know that?"_ asked Steve.

" _Your metabolism,"_ said Peggy. " _burns four times faster than that of the average person. He thought it could be one of the side effects."_ She'd drawn up a chair, and she sat down beside him.

There followed a pause where Steve glanced at her and then at the table; then Peggy leaned forward and said, " _It wasn't your fault."_

On the couch, Bucky straightened, frowning at the real Steve.

" _Did you read the report?"_ onscreen Steve's voice was bleak as winter.

" _Yes,"_ said Peggy.

" _Then you know that's not true,"_ said Steve.

"Not. A. Word," said the real Steve through clenched teeth to Bucky, who huffed in protest.

" _You did everything you could,"_ Peggy insisted.

Onscreen Steve was silent.

" _Did you believe in your friend?"_ asked Peggy. " _Did you respect him?"_

"Define 'respect'," muttered Bucky, but without rancour.

Onscreen, Steve just stared at Peggy.

" _Then stop blaming yourself,"_ said Peggy. " _Allow Barnes the dignity of his choice. He damn well must have thought you were worth it."_

"Still think so," said Bucky in a low hiss.

"Steve, we may not have agreed on the Accords, but that doesn't mean we stopped believing in you," said Rhodey, and with the exception of the still deeply conflicted Tony Wanda could see that this was true for all the Avengers who had signed the Accords.

'All' being Natasha (who was now on the run anyway), Tony, Rhodey, and Vision.

Steve's face was drawn and white, but he didn't reply.

" _I'm going after Schmidt,"_ said onscreen Steve. " _I'm not gonna stop until all of HYDRA is dead or captured."_

" _You won't be alone,"_ said Peggy.

The scene changed to SSR headquarters again. " _Johann Schmidt belongs in a bughouse,"_ said Colonel Phillips. " _He thinks he's a god and he's willing to blow up half the world to prove it, starting -"_ he pointed to the map in front of him. " _\- with the USA."_

"Why the US?" asked May.

"The US had the nerve to get a super soldier, of Schmidt's own caliber," said Sharon. "Point of honor, y'know?"

" _Schmidt's working with power beyond our capability,"_ said Howard Stark as he sat down at a table round which many, including Steve and Peggy, were gathered. " _He gets across the Atlantic, he'll wipe out the entire Eastern seaboard in an hour."_

Steve put down the document he was holding with a flap.

" _How much time we got?"_ asked Jones.

" _According to my new best friend, under twenty-four hours,"_ said the Colonel.

" _Where is he now?"_ asked Dernier.

" _HYDRA's last base is here,"_ said Colonel Phillips, pointing to a photograph he was holding. " _In the Alps. Five hundred feet below the surface."_ He handed Steve the photograph.

" _So what are we supposed to do?"_ asked Morita. " _It's not like we can just knock on the front door."_

"No, don't jinx it!" said Sam.

" _Why not?"_ asked Steve. Everyone at the table turned and looked at him as he lifted his eyes from the photo. " _That's exactly what we're going to do."_

"You jinxed it!" said Sam.


	12. On the Wings of the Valkyrie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The SSR takes down the last HYDRA base, and Steve's love life reaches its highest point.

**All rights belong to Marvel Studios.**

* * *

The Avengers watched as Steve climbed aboard his motorcycle and rode it through a sparse forest on a clear path.

"Game face, guys!" said Natasha as the screen showed Steve's face, grim and set.

"All right! Bring it!" said Bucky.

As Steve went tearing down the path, a group of about a dozen HYDRA soldiers also on motorcycles converged on his tail. As they chased him, they also began shooting at him. The shots ricocheted off Steve's shield.

Then Steve pushed a button.

"What's that do?" asked Scott.

Almost before he'd finished the question, a small disk popped up slightly from on top of the back wheel. Two ropes with arrows on the ends snapped out of it, flying into two trees each standing fairly close to the path. The rope stretched taut, and the foremost of the HYDRA riders went crashing into it. Their bodies went careening through the air.

"Huh," said Scott, looking impressed.

"Now that's just cool," said Peter.

"Thanks!" said the real Steve with a grin.

Then one of the exhaust tubes on the back of Steve's motorcycles released a stream of fire that sent a few more of the guards' bikes up in flames.

"I think I might have to try a motorcycle sometime," said Maria.

"You do that," said the real Steve.

But two of the guards seemed to know a shortcut. They veered off the path Steve was riding, and a moment later they could be glimpsed drawing level with Steve some yards to the left. Then they shot back out onto the path just in front of him.

Steve sped up. He took his bike right in between the two HYDRA bikes and snatched something small from one of them as he passed. A few moments later, both the other bikes exploded in another blast of fire. Steve smiled when he heard the bang.

"Nice going, boss!" said Bruce.

"Who knew a motorcycle kicked so much ass?" mused Clint.

Just then a great gate with a big tank in the opening loomed up in front of Steve. He took his shield off his back and stuck it between the handlebars, ducking slightly and weaving around the blasts.

"You know, your brain doesn't really work like most people's," said Darcy.

"He wouldn't be an Avenger if it did!" said Fury.

Darcy basked in the moment of having agreed with Nick Fury.

The tank came rolling out of the gate toward Steve. Steve pushed another button, and two small projectiles went shooting forward from the motorcycle and sailed straight into the tank, blowing it to smithereens.

When the flames cleared, Steve was riding along the top of the high wall. He zoomed straight off the edge and down onto the ground with a _thud_.

All the guards around him turned and began shooting at him, but their shots went flying over his head and behind his back. Steve pressed yet another button, grabbed the shield, and tossed the motorcycle with a flying leap.

He sailed over a tank, shield-punching the man on top of it into the air, and landed on both feet. Then he tossed the shield at the first guard who ran up on him. The man fell with a grunt.

The bike, meanwhile, careened into another high wall, bursting into flames on contact and blowing the wall open.

Steve was still fighting - warding off blows, punching, kicking, and throwing. Guard after guard went down with a howl.

Then two of the guards with large metal contraptions on their backs shot streams of fire. They hemmed him in, the fire streams forming a rectangle around him. Steve looked this way and that, but could see nothing.

Then, a few moments later, the men shut the weapons down and the air around Steve cleared again. He was surrounded by easily half a hundred men, all with weapons turned on him.

"What are you doing?!" cried Pepper.

"Pulling a Loki," said Steve.

Next moment Steve was being marched into the facility, an armed-to-the-teeth guard on either side of him. They marched him into the middle of the main room, and halted.

" _Arrogance may not be a uniquely American trait,"_ came the voice of the Red Skull, followed by the man himself (if man we can call him). " _but I must say you do it better than anyone."_

"Hardly better than Mr. Stark," said Vision.

"Viz, you're making me blush," said Tony.

Onscreen Steve did not speak. He merely stared into the blood-red face, and waited.

" _But there are limits to what even you can do, Captain,"_ Red Skull went on. " _Or did Erskine tell you otherwise?"_

"Oh, I don't know, he didn't have the chance to say very much!" huffed Betty.

" _He told me you were insane,"_ said Steve.

"Well he was right!" said Clint.

Red Skull tilted his head. " _He resented my genius and tried to deny me what was rightfully mine,"_ he said. " _But he gave you everything."_

"Is this _jealousy_ I hear?" Thor mocked.

" _So,"_ said the Red Skull after a pause. " _What made you so special?"_

"Uh, sanity maybe?" asked Scott.

A smirk crossed Steve's face. " _Nothing,"_ he drawled. " _I'm just a kid from Brooklyn."_

And then, before anyone had time to comment, Red Skull flew at Steve and punched him ferociously, sending him to his knees gasping and coughing.

"Oh, well _that_ seems reasonable!" cried Betty.

"Mad as a March Hare," said Sam.

But Steve looked up, still panting, from between the two guards holding him. " _I can do this all day,"_ he said.

"Uh-huh," said Tony.

"We know," said Sam.

" _Oh, of course you can, of course,"_ said Red Skull, pulling a small gun from his jacket and lowering it at Steve's head. " _But unfortunately I am on a tight schedule."_

At that moment rope with a metal pin on the end dug into the wall of rock on the outside of the base. It was followed by two others in quick succession. Schmidt turned at the noise, just in time to see a man come sliding down each of the roped, heading straight for the window.

"The Howling Commandos!" cried Thor, brightening.

"Yep!" said the real Steve with a grin.

Onscreen Steve looked up at Schmidt with a feral smile. " _So am I."_

Schmidt whirled on Steve with his gun out again, but Steve hurled one of the guards in front of him and it was the guard who vanished in a burst of blue energy.

Then the Commandos were in the room - Falsworth, Jones and Dugan came bursting through the glass, weapons all ablaze. Guards began dropping all over the room. Steve threw the remaining guard holding him to the floor. Schmidt took off.

"No! Grab him!" cried Jame.

Dugan had reached Steve's shield, which was lying on the floor. " _Rogers!"_ he called. " _You might need this!"_ And he picked up the shield and tossed it to him.

" _Thanks!"_ called Steve, and he raced from the room into a corridor. He glanced to one side and saw about twenty HYDRA soldiers running toward him.

"Whoa, that's a lot!" said Bruce.

Steve, of course, ran in the other direction.

Somewhere nearby a door was knocked in by two more Commandos (Morita and Dernier, it seemed). " _We're in!"_ shouted Morita into his headset. " _Assault team, let's go!"_

From outside under the trees, Peggy Carter stood by Colonel Phillips as he lowered his walkie-talkie and barked " _Move out!"_

"Oh, you went in with plenty of backup!" said Jane. "I don't think I got that."

A unit of armed men went tearing down the ridge, only to be met by HYDRA officers.

Inside, Dugan and Jones and Falsworth had each picked up a Tesseract-powered gun from one of the fallen guards and were decimating the HYDRA squad descending on them.

Outside, Phillips' unit went tearing up to the gate that Steve had breached earlier. HYDRA men gathered at the spot, shooting powerful blue rays that vaporized a man with each hit.

But the unit was closing in on the base, and the HYDRA men began to retreat behind their tanks. Then a number of the tanks and trucks began catching fire. It appeared that the motorcycle Steve had ditched was full of explosives.

On the couch, Steve was grinning. "I like my bikes," he said.

"You sure make 'em look like a lot of fun," said Scott.

"Indeed," said Thor. "I want one."

"Oh no you don't!" cried Jane in alarm. "Not after that airship!"

"The _what?!_ " said Fury.

"Later," said Jane.

Inside the base, the HYDRA men in front of Red Skull were blasted backward by the explosion and then gunned down by Allied troops who advanced out of the smoke. Schmidt grabbed up a weapon from the falling guard, shot down all the men with blue rays, and took off running again.

Another group, this one with Phillips at its head, was met with another score of HYDRA soldiers, one of whom was shouting, " _Cut off one head, two more shall -"_ but was shot down along with his comrades before he could finish.

"You were saying?" said Natasha pleasantly.

" _Let's go find two more!"_ said Phillips.

"Yeah!" cheered Peter.

Steve was hot after Red Skull now. Schmidt kept turning and shooting at him, but the vibranium shield did not fail. Then Steve lifted his arm and threw the shield after his enemy as hard as he could. It sailed into a closing doorway and stuck there.

Steve ran for the shield, but before he could get to it a HYDRA man with another of those fire-blasting weapons came into the hallway and began firing at him.

"That looks terribly clumsy," observed Vision.

"It's clearly not supposed to be used at short range," said Bucky. "The big ones never are."

Steve jumped behind a lip of the wall that was just next to an emergency exit, and huddled there while the man approached him.

Then, from another hall that converged with Steve's, Peggy shot the man down from the side. The man fell with a cry.

"Bam!" said Bruce.

"Peggy is such a badass," said Darcy.

Steve jogged up to Peggy, who had paused as the other troops continued on. " _You're late,"_ he said, his eyes dwelling on her.

"Your standing joke?" said Laura.

Steve looked as if he was just going to lean in for a kiss, but Peggy said, " _Weren't you about to -"_

" _Yes!"_ said Steve, and off he ran.

"Aw, nuts!" said Bucky.

Onscreen, Steve managed to pull his shield out of the closing door and barge through it just in time to see Red Skull climbing the ladder of the _Valkyrie_. Phillips' troops came tearing out of various exits and tried to climb up after Red Skull. He gunned them all down and sprang inside the plane.

"He's getting away!" protested Cooper excitedly.

Inside, some way behind the cockpit, was the machine that held the Tesseract. Red Skull turned the handle and locked it in before climbing into the pilot's chair and starting up the plane. The weapons systems came on, and targets lit up the dashboard. New York appeared on the destination meter.

"Oh, no," said Pepper.

"Autopilot, right?" asked Sam.

"Yeah," said the real Steve.

The _Valkyrie_ was rolling down the runway. Steve came tearing outside, saw the great plane leaving, and paused. He looked around and saw Allied soldiers and HYDRA soldiers shooting at each other. Then he tore forward through the fray, punching, kicking, or shield-knocking aside anyone who was unfortunate enough to be in his way. He jumped up on top of a truck and from there up toward the high ceiling. He caught a dangling rope and swung himself forward, letting go at the highest point of the arc to jump down and go on running after the plane.

"Watch out HYDRA!" said Maria.

"You've just waked the giant that napped in America!" said Thor.

"We know it's no one but Captain America!" sang Natasha.

"Who'll finish what he began?" Wanda joined in.

"Who'll kick the Krauts to Japan?" Sam joined in.

"Seriously?!" cried the real Steve in exasperation.

But the plane was moving too quickly, and Steve soon came to a halt. Almost at that moment, the black HYDRA car came to a screeching halt beside him, Colonel Phillips at the wheel and Peggy in the backseat. " _Get in!"_ shouted Phillips.

"Just in time!" crowed Bucky.

Steve didn't have to be asked twice. He leapt into the passenger seat, and Phillips stomped the gas pedal.

"Not the bike, but it'll do!" said the real Steve.

Inside the _Valkyrie_ , Red Skull saw the car coming up behind him. He pulled on a lever and flipped a switch, and the plane began going much faster. He was now in a large tunnel that had been built for use as an indoor runway, which eventually came out of the mountainside and into the open, where there was a short distance to the edge of a cliff.

"Uh-oh, could get messy," said Scott apprehensively.

Phillips pushed a button, and the car also picked up speed. As it began to pass underneath the _Valkyrie_ , Steve pulled himself up, his shield on his arm. " _Keep it steady!"_ he cried.

" _Wait!"_ cried Peggy, stretching herself up toward him. He turned to her, leaned down, and kissed her.

The Avengers burst into applause.

"Wahoo!" cheered Clint.

"Yes, FINALLY!" shouted Natasha.

"About time!" Bucky declared.

Then, after a moment, they broke apart. " _Go get him!"_ said Peggy.

"You heard her, boss!" said Bucly.

Steve glanced at the Colonel.

" _I'm not kissin' you!"_ said the Colonel. Wanda giggled.

"You don't seem the type," snorted Tony.

Onscreen, Steve put his shield on his back and got ready to jump as the car continued to pass underneath the enormous underbelly of the plane.

Then, just as the _Valkyrie_ came outside from its indoor runway and began to lift into the air, Steve jumped. Phillips hit the brakes and twisted the steering wheel as hard as he could. The car went spinning and sliding, shooting dangerously close to the edge - so close, in fact, that the back wheels were actually dangling in the air.

"O-o-o-kay," breathed Peter as the tires squealed. "Yeah, nothing happened, right?"

"Not to them," said Betty.

Steve clutched at one of the wheels of the _Valkyrie_ ; in the car, which had come to a stop, Peggy twisted around to look up at Steve as Steve glanced back toward her.

As the plane passed through the snowy mountains of the Alps, Steve tugged on the cords wrapped round the leg of the wheel he was hanging on to. A door on the underside opened, and Steve climbed quietly in.

Inside the _Valkyrie_ it was dark and deceptively quiet. He was standing on a metal walkway that overlooked a row of bomber of bomber jets, each with a torpedo attached and a name in large white letters painted on it. _Chicago,_ read one, and _Boston_ , read another. But almost directly in front of Steve was one labeled _New York._ Steve stared in dismay.

A door opened from somewhere and four three guards jogged quietly along a walkway below Steve's. He swung himself up to the ceiling and then jumped down on one of them above, knocking him out with a blow from the shield.

On the couch, Steve started chuckling. "Wait for it. . ." he said

The others whirled around, and the foremost of them whipped out a small pocket knife.

"No way!" cried Tony.

T'Challa and Sharon burst into laughter.

"You're kidding me with that," said Clint.

"You wish!" said the real Steve.

Onscreen Steve grabbed the man by the arm, kicking the next one down as he did, and yanked the knife out of his hand. The fourth man fled, and Steve threw the knife into his back. Then he turned and dealt with the second man (the one who'd pulled the knife). But the first guard had climbed to his feet and was running toward one of the fighter planes. Steve jumped up and ran after him.

The man climbed on top of the Chicago plane to get in, but Steve found its control station and pulled the lever. The doors under the Chicago plane opened and the plane fell out, the man following with a howl. The two men he'd downed earlier were up again, and Steve tossed one of through the open door after his companion.

The last one managed to just barely jump into the Boston plane and start it up before Steve saw. He ran to the plane and jumped on top of it, followed closely by another HYDRA guard, who jumped on top of him and knocked the shield out of his hand. The shield tumbled to the side.

"Aw, crap!" said Rhodey.

"Couldn't take it where I was going, could I?" said Steve,

The doors below the plane opened, and both Steve and the other HYDRA guard gripped the plane for dear life as the pilot steered it out. The guard in the pilot's chair, seeing the two struggle, tried to shake Steve off by twisting and dipping through the air.

"No, I guess not," Rhodey conceded.

The HYDRA guard lost his grip and fell, but Steve's fingers found a switch that pulled the door open. He reached inside and pulled on the red lever, ejecting the pilot, and jumped in himself and shut the door. He steered back toward the _Valkyrie_.

In the cockpit, Red Skull saw the plane approaching him, and he turned on his sensor guns and fired at it. Steve pulled his plane over, under, and around the shots, still trying to get closer to the _Valkyrie_.

"You knew how to fly one of those things?" asked Bruce in surprise.

"Cap learns shit like this on the job, Doctor," said Fury.

"Right," said Bruce. "I knew that."

Steve steered in a wide circle and got behind and under the _Valkyrie_. He steered upward as he close in on it, and tried to brake as he shot through the opening and straight into the slot where it had been earlier. It shot in, scraping and banging the sides of the compartment as it went.

"Let's carry on, shall we?" said Scott as Steve climbed out of the plane, picked up his shield, and proceeded further inside.

He found a door, and opened it quietly. He found himself looking into the cockpit, and in front of the pilot's chair was the device holding the Cube. All was quiet.

Steve began to tiptoe inside, and got all the way up to the device. He was about to reach for it when he heard the familiar whine of a Tesseract-powered weapon.

"Shit!" sputtered Bucky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: I decided not to include the post-credit scene only because it is repeated in the first Avenger movie, and would be redundant. Apologies to all who hoped to see it here.


	13. End of the Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Viewing comes to an end.

**Of course I own nothing. All rights belong to Marvel Studios.**

* * *

"What is it with you _not looking behind you?_ " cried Fury as onscreen Steve whirled around just in time to ward off Red Skull's attack from behind.

" _You don't give up, do you?"_ he cried.

" _Nope!"_ said Steve, and he ran straight at his enemy.

"I'm a soldier, not a spy," said the real Steve in response to Fury.

"Soldiers look behind them," said Thor.

"It's not a soldier thing, it's a you thing," said Bucky.

Red Skull was able to get two more unsuccessful shots at Steve before Steve was on him. Red Skull ducked as Steve swung the shield at him, knocked the thing out of his hand, and hurled him to the floor where he kicked him viciously.

"Maybe the serum wasn't ready, but it sure as hell _worked_ ," said Sam.

Steve jumped up and grabbed Red Skull round the shoulders, ramming him against the machine. Both of them slid down to the floor.

"Mind the Cube!" said Clint.

Steve grabbed Red Skull by the neck and tried to strangle him, falling against the machine again. The two rolled over, and Red Skull seized the shield and struck Steve two blows with it. Then he rammed Steve against the machine. Steve picked himself up and head-butted Red Skull before tossing him into the pilot's seat. He fell all over the controls, and the _Valkyrie_ began a steep nosedive.

"Mind the plane!" Clint amended.

Red Skull plummeted into Steve and both rolled to the back of the room, pummeling one another as the plane shot toward earth.

Red Skull tossed Steve aside and began climbing a beam to get back to the controls. He vaulted into the chair and turned the plane's flight back up. Steve went rolling into the far wall.

Red Skull pulled out his pistol again and pointed at Steve. " _You could have the power of the gods!"_ he called as he shot at Steve, who dodged the blue rays and kept running ("No, you could _not_ ," said Thor). " _Yet you wear a flag on your chest and think you fight a battle of nations!"_ He fired again, just missing Steve ("Hey, I'm not the one with pretensions around here!" protested the real Steve). " _I have seen the future, Captain -"_ Another shot. " _\- and there are no flags!"_

" _Not my future!"_ huffed Steve, and he somersaulted over to his shield and held it up as Red Skull fired at him yet again. Then he hurled the shield straight at Red Skull, who stumbled backward. The machine holding the Tesseract was blasted open, and the Tesseract itself tumbled out onto the floor ("Yikes!" squawked Cooper). Loose lumps of blue brightness tumbled out of it, leaking all over the room and around Red Skull as he stood up.

"Uh-oh," said Scott. "That's gotta be bad."

" _What have you done?!"_ cried Schmidt. " _No!"_ He picked up the Cube.

"No! Don't touch it!" shouted Thor.

The Cube began to glow even more brightly than ever, shooting blue tendrils up over the Red Skull's head. They formed a ring, and with a great _bang_ the ceiling opened onto a glimpse of some place that none but Thor had ever seen before. Both onscreen Steve and Red Skull stared in amazement.

"It's a portal, isn't it?" said Laura.

"Where _is_ that, by the way?" asked Steve.

"The Galaxy!" exclaimed Thor.

"What do you mean, the Galaxy?" said Steve.

"Guys, I think Red Skull's smoked for good," said Bruce.

Red Skull's fingers were dissipating as they held the Tesseract. The blue tendrils moved down his hand, his arm, and over his shoulder to engulf his whole body. He gave a scream as his body was consumed in a film of whitish-blue energy. Steve shrank back from the blast that shot up from Earth through the portal.

"That's why you don't touch it," grunted Thor.

"And that's the end of that!" said Betty. "Good job, Cap!"

"Thanks, Dr. Ross," said the real Steve.

Then the portal closed with a streak of lightning, and the Cube burned a hole in the floor of the _Valkyrie_ and fell through the sky.

Steve picked up his shield, pausing to watch the Cube fall, and rushed into the pilot's chair. He pulled off his helmet as he sat down. As soon as he did, he saw the destination, New York City, marked out on one of the screens, followed by his current location over icy water.

On the couch, Steve took a deep breath. Wanda tried not to hear the remnants of the nightmares that usually started at this moment. Bucky shot him a tense look.

"Where's a Stark or a Lang when you need one?" muttered Clint.

Onscreen, Steve stared out the window, but there were only clouds to be seen.

Back at the HYDRA base, Steve's voice came into the control room. " _Come in, this is Captain Rogers, do you read me?"_

Jim Morita was seated in front of the microphone. " _Captain Rogers, what is your loca-"_

But Peggy, who was standing nearby, rushed to the microphone. " _Steve, is that you? Are you all right?"_ she cried.

Sharon was stone-faced. Her aunt had never mentioned this moment during her lifetime.

" _Peggy! Schmidt's dead!"_ came Steve's voice over the radio.

"Small favors," muttered the real Steve.

" _What about the plane?"_

In the chair, Steve gazed out the window and down at the ruin of the controls. " _That's a little bit tougher to explain,"_ he said.

" _G-give me your coordinates, I'll find you a safe landing site,"_ said Peggy anxiously.

" _There's not going to be a safe landing,"_ said Steve as he examined the controls. " _But I can try and force it down."_

Thor opened his mouth and shut it, and Bucky bit his lip. No one else spoke. The real Steve was gazing at the screen, his eyes dwelling on Peggy's face.

Phillips was shooing a confused Morita away from the microphone. Peggy's eyes were wide. " _I-I'll get Howard on the line, he'll know what to do,"_ she said.

" _There's not enough time,"_ said Steve. " _This thing is moving too fast and it's heading for New York."_ His jaw clenched and unclenched. " _I gotta put her in the water."_

Peggy's chin quivered. " _Please don't do this. We have time, we can work it out."_

Watching her dissolve into tears was like watching Steve about to attempt suicide: it felt wrong, like the universe had unbalanced.

" _Right now I'm in the middle of nowhere,"_ said Steve, looking at his screen. " _If I wait any longer a lot of people are going to die."_

There followed a long pause where the _Valkyrie_ flew over the clouds and its radio was silent. Wanda heard a quiet sniff from Pepper.

" _Peggy,"_ said Steve. " _This is my choice."_

Peggy's face crumpled.

In the plane, Steve pulled out his picture of her and put it in front of him on the dashboard. He looked at it a while as if drawing strength from it. Then his face hardened, and he tilted the plane down.

Wanda felt like crying at the look on his face.

Steve glanced again at the picture. " _Peggy?"_ he said.

" _I'm here,"_ Peggy's voice wavered only a little.

Outside the window, the clouds broke and icy blue water came into view.

" _I'm gonna need a raincheck on that dance,"_ said Steve.

Thor's lip quivered.

Peggy's eyes were full of tears. " _All right,"_ she said. " _A week next Saturday, at the Stork club."_

" _You've got it,"_ said Steve.

" _Eight o'clock on the dot, don't you dare be late,"_ said Peggy. " _Understood?"_

" _You know, I still don't know how to dance,"_ said Steve as the ice drew ever nearer.

Bucky shook his head.

" _I'll show you how,"_ Peggy promised. " _Just be there."_

" _We'll have the band play something slow,"_ said Steve. " _I'd hate to step on your -"_

The radio cut with a buzz, and tears rolled down Peggy's cheeks. " _Steve?"_ she called.

There was no answer.

"Oh, my God," huffed Bucky, and ran his hand over his face. Thor had burst into tears. Wanda followed soon after.

"Think I got something. . ." Bruce poked at his eyes.

" _Steve?"_ called Peggy again. " _Steve?"_

Colonel Phillips, by now the only one in the vicinity, turned and slipped quietly away. Peggy lowered her head on her arms, and wept.

Steve had, of course, never seen Peggy's end of the line. He'd heard her tears over the radio, but seeing them was another matter entirely. He had never (until having gone to see her at the retirement home during the last two years) seen her cry. Wanda felt his heart shatter, and he put his head on his knees.

The ruins of the _Valkyrie_ lay sprawled all over and under the thick snow-covered ice. The main portion sat with its back half sticking out of the ice and its front half buried. The engines died, and the plane fell with a great heaving and cracking into the ice.

"Damn it," said Tony. Pepper wiped her eyes and surreptitiously slipped him a tissue (she was still sitting next to him).

And then it was V-J Day in London.

Planes flew low over the streets, which were crowded with cheering, flag-waving people. Soldiers were reunited their families and friends and lovers.

" _To the Captain,"_ said Falsworth, and he and the other Howling Commandos solemnly raised their glasses to toast him.

Then there came a view of the Cube underwater, and of a pair of metal arms reaching toward it.

" _Sir,"_ somebody said to Howard Stark, who stood with Peggy Carter looking intently out the window of a boat. Howard went to look at the screen his assistant was pointing at. It showed the Cube, and the probe picking it up.

" _Take us to the next grid point,"_ said Howard.

" _But there's no trace of wreckage,"_ said the man. " _and the energy signature stops here."_

" _Just keep looking,"_ said Howard.

"Good to know he kept searching," said Steve.

"Oh, he never stopped looking for you," said Fury.

Wanda felt a prickle of curiosity from Tony. _So it's possible to be a decent guy and a lousy father,_ came the thought. She tried hard not to think about it.

Back at SSR headquarters, Colonel Phillips found Peggy going over a report. She looked up at his approach, and he laid a folder down in front of her and walked away without a word.

Peggy picked up the folder. _Strategic Scientific Reserve,_ it ran. _Classified. Captain America. Inactive._ When she opened it, the first thing she saw was part of a photograph. She drew it out to look at it.

It was a picture of Steve - Steve the SSR recruit, before the injection. He was pale, gaunt, and squinting a bit in the sun. But it was him.

On the couch, Steve smiled a little.

Then there was a brief image of a group of young boys with trashcan lids painted like Captain America's shield running across the street to join a small crowd standing around the antique shop in Brooklyn before the screen faded to black.

"Is that it?" asked Maria. "Is it over?"

But almost at once the sound of a soft breeze came sighing through the speakers. After a few seconds, Wanda could distinguish a voice speaking. The voice was so soft at first that no one could tell what it was saying.

The real Steve frowned. "What's going on?" he asked.

"You don't know?" asked Thor.

Then, without warning, there came a view of Steve's eyes - just his eyes - in the act of fluttering open.

" _. . .and it's a curveball, high and outside for ball one. . ."_

Steve's brow furrowed as he listened to the voice. It seemed to be the commentary for a baseball game.

"Ohhh, I know what this is," said the real Steve. "I'm waking up. I'm about to meet SHIELD, actually." His eyes slid toward Fury with a mixture of irony and faint reproach.

"Again, we were hoping to keep you from getting upset by telling you in stages," said Fury.

"This isn't going to end well, is it?" asked Vision.

" _. . .and the crowd well knows that with one swing of his bat, this fellow's capable of making it a brand-new game again. . ."_

"A baseball game commentary?" asked Clint in some surprise.

"From the '40s," said Maria. "It was supposed to make him think it was basically weeks later instead of, you know, decades."

"It was a kind idea," said the real Steve. "Just didn't work, was all."

The view expanded so that they could see more. Onscreen, Steve was lying on his back on a bed in a small, comfortable room. The window looked out onto an apartment building. A ceiling fan was stirring lazily.

"The room was very convincing, by the way," the real Steve went on. "The window, too. Might have worked if not for the commentary."

"Thanks, I guess," said Maria.

Onscreen Steve turned his head to the source of the voice, which was coming from the dresser standing against the wall. He frowned, obviously puzzled.

" _. . .three runs will score! Reiser heads to third, Durorcher's going to wave him in! Here comes the relay, but. . ."_

"Oh, I remember that game!" cried Bucky.

"You were there?" asked Peter.

"We were both there," said the real Steve.

The door opened, and a woman stepped inside. She was wearing a puffy '40s white blouse, a black tie, a high-waisted knee-length fitted skirt, and a pleasant smile. " _Good morning,"_ she said as she shut the door behind her. " _Or should I say afternoon?"_ She looked at her watch.

Steve leveled a suspicious stare on her. " _Where am I?"_ he asked.

" _You're in a recovery room in New York City,"_ said the woman.

"Well, you were in New York City," said Sharon.

"Fair enough," said the real Steve.

His onscreen counterpart glanced at the radio and then turned back to the woman's face. His frown deepened. " _Where am I really?"_ he asked.

"Uh-oh," said Bucky.

The woman's features twitched just a little. " _I'm afraid I don't understand."_

"This is not good," said Clint.

" _The game,"_ said Steve. " _It's from May of 1941. I know, 'cause I was there."_

"You didn't even get the _year_ right?" asked Tony incredulously. He was by this time quite happily cuddling Pepper, who was trying to look resigned but obviously enjoying herself.

"Hey, my team was supposed to take care of logistics like that," said Fury.

The woman began to look anxious.

Steve rose to his feet and loomed over the woman. " _Now I'm going to ask you again,"_ he said. " _Where am I?"_

"You are way too physically intimidating for that," said Betty. The real Steve merely shrugged.

The woman pressed a red button on a small remote hidden in her right hand. " _Captain Rogers -"_

" _Who are you?"_ Steve's voice rose.

The door opened again, and two armed men came into the room. Steve took a step back.

Next moment, the wall of the compartment that had been the false bedroom burst open and the two men came sailing out of it. Steve bounded through the hole, the woman bounding after him. " _Captain Rogers!"_ she called.

"Oh boy, here we go," said Bucky.

Onscreen Steve stared around at the large, bare room in which the compartment was situated. Facing the window was a large, very high resolution picture of a line of apartment buildings. He took off running in the other direction.

"Oh dear," sighed Sharon. "That was a really nice poster too."

" _Captain Rogers, wait!"_ cried the woman, but he did not heed her. She pulled a walkie-talkie from her pocket. " _All agents, Code 13,"_ she said into it. " _I repeat, all agents, Code 13!"_

"Okay, new girl on the playground," said Jane. "What's a Code 13?"

The woman's voice echoed over the loudspeaker as Steve barged into a large, open hallway full of people, mostly uniformed agents, milling about. Many of them saw Steve at once.

"Well, that was her codename," said Sharon in response to Jane. "She was calling for backup."

Steve raced through the building, knocking aside anyone who got in his way. He banged through the front doors and into the street, right in front of a very modern taxi which honked loudly. He skidded into the middle of the road and started running again, alongside cars which certainly were not from his own time. Then he reached a crosswalk, and there came to a halt staring around in confusion and dismay.

He was in Times Square.

All at once, he was surrounded by about six black SUVs, which came to a stop in a circle around him. Men in suits and others in uniforms came boiling out of them. Foremost among them was a familiar tall figure in a long black trench coat with a patch over his left eye. " _At ease, soldier!"_ he said.

"You brought him in personally?" asked Natasha of Fury.

Onscreen, Fury walked forward to speak to Steve. " _Look, I'm sorry about that little show back there,"_ he said. " _But we thought it best to break it to you slowly."_

" _Break what?"_ asked Steve.

" _You've been asleep, Cap,"_ said Fury. " _For almost seventy years."_

Steve's face fell. He turned away, and looked up and around at all the unfamiliar signs and buildings and screens.

" _You gonna be okay?"_ asked Fury with genuine concern.

" _Yeah,"_ said Steve, looking and sounding exactly the opposite. " _Yeah, it's just . . . I had a date."_

"Oh, _dear_ ," sighed Vision.

And the screen went dark again.

After a long pause, Natasha reached for the DVD case and walked over to the player. She ejected the disc and shut it into its case. "Well, that's finished," she said.

* * *

**Finis!**


End file.
